Affectira
by Emli
Summary: Just a little something that my friends and I have been working on for a while. It was meant to be a birthday gift to one of them who isn't writing any of it, of course , but her birthday was a month ago, so...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_This is just a story I've been working on with a few of my friends. The grammar/spelling aren't the GREATEST, since only one of my friends is capable of writing decently, but I edited it as well as I could._

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own anyone but Emily, who's me. Kaliyan, Emma, Janet, Sydney, and Mandy own themselves. J.K. Rowling owns everyone else, except Distressa and Xavier, who we (all the people listed up there) own, because we made them up to make the story more interesting, and...well...for the story to be able to have an end._

_Enjoy!_

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**Janet's POV**

"I thought I told you guys to stop messing with the radio!" Emma shouted back at me and Kaliyan. We had been changing the radio between 101.3 and some station with polka music in the car while sitting in the backseat, just because we knew it bugged her. Both of us giggled and I turned it back to 101.3, even though I hated most songs on that station. Emma, Mandy, and Kaliyan enjoyed the station. Emma was driving us all home from the movies. We had just seen "Kissed by an Angel", and it was OK. I thought the plot line was a little messed up, but otherwise it was a pretty good movie. You could feel the excitement in the car, even though everyone was silent. Just as we had planned days and days ago, we each had a date tomorrow night.

The rest of the night was pretty boring, just homework I didn't finish coming back to haunt me, as was the day that followed. The only weird thing was in Science class, my head felt funny. I'm not really sure what went wrong, or how I noticed, because two seconds later, it was gone. It was really hard to describe. Then, more boringness through Civics and Math, and, well, the rest of the day really. I didn't think about the feeling much of the day, until something, and I can't even remember what, got me thinking about it again as I ran to my locker at the end of the day. I was going home with Emma, to get ready for our dates, and to carpool. I shoved everything I could find in my locker, still thinking about reasons for that feeling in Science. We all got out and onto the buses, Mandy going to hers, and Kali, Emma, and I to ours. Then I thought again about the feeling, and my own action reminded me of Jonas in "The Giver." Jonas had no explanation of why certain object around him started to change, and then instantly went back to normal. What was really happening to Jonas, was he was beginning to see the color red, because he was the Receiver of Memory. But I still had no explanation for my changes.

"Are you feeling okay, Janet?" Emma said as we walked off the bus. "You aren't acting yourself." I turned to her.

"I'm fine," I replied. Kaliyan said goodbyes to us, and I walked to Emma's house with, who else, Emma. I forgot about my little problem when we got to her house, however. We always had so much fun when we hung out together. We mostly abused our teachers and every so often a few classmates. OK, abused wasn't the right word. We talked about them in a very gossipy manner. Then, it was time to pick up Kaliyan and Mandy, and meet the guys at the restaurant.

Everything was great, everyone was excited and we were all just mainly happy to be somewhere outside of our houses besides school. We each sat at our separate tables, with our "chosen someones," and occasionally talking with one another over our shoulders. Then it happened again, and, like the first time, it was gone before I could blink. Indescribable, unignorable, and completely annoying. It took my mind completely away from our conversations, just to wonder about what it might be. I just kept drifting away, and Marcello had to constantly pull me out of the angel zone.

"What's wrong, tesora? You aren't talking much." He looked me straight in the eyes, and I could see deep worry in them. I got lost in the molten gold of them, and it took another prodding to get me back to earth. "Janet?"

"Oh, sorry." I sat up straight. "I'm okay, really!" I added at his expression. I did my best to keep the subject at the back of my mind. What was really troubling me now were the questions buzzing around in my head. Should I tell my friends? Should I tell Marce? Why does this have to haunt me now? On a date?

It was going to be a long night.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **_Just a quick note before this chapter begins -- it's really short, mainly because we don't need much from Distressa. ;) I'm going to post the next chapter right after I add this one, though, so no worries about long waits for new chapters. ;)_

_R+R please, and ENJOY! :)_

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**Distressa Malfoy**

As the face of the girl holding the power to control the world came into view in the swirling potion, Scorpius sneered. "The person with the power to control everyone is a stupid Muggle?"  
Xavier smiled creepily and spoke, "This will be easier than planned. Why would anyone care if an Imperious was on a ignorant little Muggle?" He laughed sounding scarier than I had ever heard from anyone. Including my father, Draco Malfoy, when he spoke of "that blood-traitor Weasley" or "that annoying prat Potter."

Both of my brothers were scaring me. I picked up my books so I could leave and get away from the madness of them and their plan. As I picked up my Transfiguration textbook, I knocked over the cauldron we were peering into, showing Janet Holmes' smiling face. The silverish liquid spilled onto the bathroom floor, and the cauldron bounced under the door of a stall. Scorpius gave me his most evil look. "Mop up this mess. If we get caught for this, it's all your fault, you filthy little bitch!" He stood up and magicked his books to follow him, deeming them not even worthy to pick up himself. Xavier soon followed.  
I just wanted to slap them across the face. Scorpius couldn't talk to ME like that, even if he was Father's favorite. And Xavier! He's usually nice to me, but he's so scared of Scorpius. He's just a follower. I decided not to clean it up. I WASN'T going to be a limp noodle and do everything Scorpius said. I jogged down to the Slytherin common room, and looked around for my brothers, so I could confront them. I didn't know about their plan... I really didn't care to take over the world. I bet it has something to do with their obsession with Grandad Lucius' stories about the evil Harry Potter killing the great and powerful Dark Lord, making our lives worse. I walked up to the girl sitting in front of the fireplace.  
"Hey, Ivy, have you seen Scorpius or Xavier?" I asked my best friend (and 1st year, like me). She blinked at me with her violet eyes.  
"Yeah, they went that-a way." Ivy pointed towards the boys dormitory. I started toward the stairs, but when I got to the edge and looked up the huge staircase, I chickened out. What Scorpius would do to me... I shuddered at the thought. He was skilled with a wand. I went up to the girls dormitory instead to get my new schoolbooks and some parchment. I grabbed them from where I threw them on my bed and, when I got to the common room, sat next to Ivy.

"I can't believe gave us all that Potions homework." Ivy complained. "I mean, reading two pages in Magical Drafts and Potions, is one thing. Doing a two page essay the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane is just mental." We both set onto our homework, but it was really hard to concentrate when I kept thinking about my brothers plans. "Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same substance, also known as aconite." I wrote. I looked up at Ivy sitting across from me, waving her quill in front of her face while she concentrated on the words in her book. I sighed, and once again opened up Magical Drafts and Potions.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **_Another chapter, as promised, this one much, MUCH longer. You're welcome. :) Again, R+R please!!!_

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**Janet's POV**

As I looked outside at 2 am, I felt strange. I knew it wasn't totally uncommon to be up this early for me, but it felt like I should be going to school. I had the sudden urge to wake up everyone in the world and make them do the daily things like I felt. I wouldn't do such a thing, though I had always known I could. But I had the feeling of a forced hand. Like if I wasn't careful, I would do it subconsciously. I shook it off, and decided to go to the park across the way from my house. Stepping out into the cool summer air felt nice. As I crossed the train tracks, I saw a figure. I was scared for a second, forgetting the fact that I could control everyone. I was only worried about what could happen if this person weren't very friendly, If you know what I mean.

The snowy-white figure turned to face me. It was Marcello. In the seconds as I sighed in relief, he crossed the area between us, put me in his arms and kissed me. Like always his lips were sweet and cool beneath mine.

"Emma called me. She told me you probably wouldn't be feeling the best at 2 am. I was really confused at first." He chuckled. And then his eyes were concerned. "So whats wrong?" Marcello asked in his thick Italian accent.

"I'm just.... I just feel like taking a walk."

"I'll come with you." And his lips were on mine again, which caught me off guard. Then, he picked me up and the next second I was sitting on one of the cold swings at the park. It was like he had read my mind. We talked for a while about the usual things. Homework, teachers, friends, plans, stealing kisses every now and then. My stomach growled.

"Sorry," I said. "It feels like lunch time, and I've skipped breakfast."

"Which you should really stop doing. I don't care if your mom won't get you to school on time, I could just run you there." I smiled. Marce was always looking out for me.

"Anyways, it feels like lunch time even though it only..." I looked at my watch. "4:15 am." We'd been talking for hours. He smiled.

"Go get dressed. We shall go to Starbucks, and fill you up my pancia bella." He said. I raced back into the house, tore through my room looking for something to wear. I finally deciding on jeans, my cello camp t-shirt, sneakers, and a sweater. I bounced out the door, almost running into Marcello.

"Bella? I have never seen you so chipper this early. Usually you aren't fully awake until noon. You okay?" he asked. I shrugged it off.

"Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf." I spoke sarcastically. I continued to walk down the street, smacking right into a train-crossing sign. "Oh Shoot! Or not." I said as I rubbed my head. Marcello looking worried. "Don't worry. I'm fine. But can you carry me to the coffee shop a couple blocks away? I don't trust myself." I giggled. Marcello smiled and nodded, but still looked worried. We were outside the Starbucks a few seconds later. I got a wonderful croissant sandwich and Earl Grey tea. For some reason, this time the black coffee I usually got hadn't appealed to me. By the time I finished it was time to get home so my parents didn't find out about my late night excursions. As I walked in the door at five, I realized my mother had an early appointment and maybe she would like some coffee. As I went into the kitchen, Marce wandered into the living room, which was a bit odd, because usually when we were together he never left my side. When I walked into the living room to see what he was up to, I saw him in baggy shorts and a loose t-shirt. I looked at him confused.

"What? Your parents will question me if I'm here for no reason." Marcello said.

"So what's your reason?" When I tried to find a reason for the goofy get-up, I turned up a blank.

"I'll tell them I was on a jog near by and decided to stop by." He was very thorough. While we wait for my parents to wake up we planned what we were going to do today. In the end, we decided on hanging out with Emma, Mandy, Kaliyan, Emily and the boys at the Bush Lake Beach. It was a cloudy day, but it would be fun nonetheless. I called everyone, telling them about the plans. Emma answered immediately, saying that Santino and she were already making lunch for it. When Emily answered, she told me that she'd come by with Skylar as soon as she could, and asked if she could bring anything. I had to leave a message for both Kaliyan and Amanda. Kaliyan was still asleep when I called, and Amanda was out hunting. They both called back about 30 minutes later. Amanda loved the plans and said she'd tell Michel, and I wasn't even sure Kaliyan's response was English. She replied with, "Mmf. 'Oo early. Be 'ere eight wif Sef." Her voice dropped off at the end and I had no doubt she'd fallen asleep.

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"Stop it! Stop it!" Emma squealed, waking me up from my daydreaming-like spell, to see Santino was putting a caterpillar on her leg. We were still at Bush Lake, laying in the tall grass after swimming in the warm water. We had spent the entire day there, and though it had started thundering, our conversations masked the fears that the other beach-goers ran from. Although we spent most of the Saturday relaxing, and it was only 6 pm, it felt like 12 am. I yawned.

"Wow. It's so weird. I'm really tired all of a sudden. Like it's bedtime, you know? And I woke up this morning at 2 am. I'm so confused." I said. Mandy nodded, showing, and giving me empathy.

"I kind of know how you feel. I mean, I'm up 24/7. I never fall asleep. It's weird, huh?" She laughed. But Marcello still looked worried.

"I could take you home if you want, love..." he said, stoking my cheek. He was so apprehensive about me all the time. It made me feel guilty, like I should worry about him too, though I knew there was no need. Maybe he was protective because he had such a short amount of time with me and didn't want it condensed. Another thing could be that he knows me and my friends. I'm prone to sickness and injuries and my friends, well, they're not very lucky in the safety department either. We kind of have trouble with staying away from danger. I mean, it had been like, what, 3 months without someone attacking us? Is that a new record?

After I took a better account of my tiredness (very much so), I nodded. As Marcello ran me home, I fell asleep in his arms (I know. Romantic, right? 3). I woke up tucked snug in my bed, Marcello practically buried in my stuffed animals. He did this every once in a while, 'cause he liked to watch me sleep sometimes. I never really understood why he liked sitting in my stuffed animal pile, though. He just said it gave him the best view to watch my slumber. His words, not mine.

When my eyes opened, I looked at my clock. 1:30 am. Wow. This is worse than jet lag! I thought. It was like I was in a totally different time zone. I shook it off, and turned around on the bed, to get more comfortable and try to fall back asleep. I landed on something rock hard. I glanced down, and saw Marcello's amused expression.

"I couldn't help myself from coming over here. I am sorry if I disturbed you. I can move." As he said this, he actually did not move at all. To reassure him this didn't bother me at all, I hugged him as tight as I could. The too-warm air blew through the open window and it annoyed me. The heat was coy with me and, although it was usually cooler, it was warmer than I could ever imagine. He saw the sweat grow on my forehead. He put his arms around me, leaving a trail of goosebumps. I shivered and leaned in more. He was colder than an icebox in December, which suited me fine because it felt like it was 100 degrees. Wait. Did I actually just say icebox? I thought, then dismissed it. I leaned in and kissed his ice cold lips, and my heart pumped faster and faster. Then I shivered. "Marcello. Do you think it's crazy that I wake up at 1and feel really refreshed and fall asleep at 6 feeling as though it is midnight?" I asked.

"About as crazy as staying awake forever. But you are interesting in that way. You are as predictable as the weather. Always changing; not even an expert knows what you are doing," Marcello said, smiling a smile that could light up the whole town. Then he kissed me again.  
I tried to fall back asleep. After almost an hour of lying in bed, I decided it was a lost cause, and got up to take a shower. When I came out of the bathroom, Marce had coffee waiting for me at the kitchen table. After I was showered, dressed and caffeinated, Marcello and I decided to go see a movie and then join up with the others. Emma was the type of person who loved to hang out with friends all the time. Sometimes this was really annoying, but her heart's in the right place. We left a note for my parents saying that Marcello and I had decided to go to Emma's and didn't want to wake them. We saw Finding Nemo at a discount movie theater that showed years-old movies (but not classics). By then, it was around 5 am. We walked around Lake Calhoun and talked about swimming and my synchro team. I joked about how Kaliyan was so strong now that she was one of the best on the team because she could support skull so hard. Then we got on to our favorite lakes.

"Mi bella. When I was a young boy in Italy, there was the most beautiful lake. It was called Lake Lesina. Someday, I will take you there. I know you will love it, too." Marcello said. He spoke more of how at night, it used to scare him. He thought that there once were monsters there. Then I burst in, not knowing what I was saying.

"Yeah, I had that same kind of feeling about Black Lake when I first saw it at night! But there really are monsters there." Marcello looked at me puzzlingly.

"When did you ever go to a Black Lake? I only know of one..." He trailed off. I had never actually ever been to a Black Lake. It was like someone was talking for me, Putting their memories into my head, and now out to Marcello. I had memories of a lake I believe is Black Lake, but they didn't feel like mine; they felt artificial, like the banana flavored Runts candy. Then I thought about what Marcello said, 'I know only of one...' I shook my head to clear it.

"Yeah, I went there when I was younger," I said to Marcello, lying so that he wouldn't worry. I looked at my watch. "Oh! Maybe we should go over to Emma's; I want to make sure to get there at an unreasonable time. Just to mess with her." I laughed, thinking about how Emma would react when we showed up at her house at 7:30 in the morning. Marcello nodded and took me on his shoulders. Then he ran to Emma's house. The feeling was amazing, especially because it was really hot out, so the wind felt nice. As we stepped onto the cement doorstep, I saw the thermometer outside. It read 53 degrees. Hm...must be broken, I thought.

We rang the doorbell multiple times just to rub in the earliness of it. After about 10 rings, or 20 seconds, Emma and Santino were at the door. After she opened it, she slapped me. It stung a bit, but didn't hurt enough to yell or anything. Then she whisper-shouted at me.

"Janet! My parents are asleep and Anna is just leaving for her job! Shut up! And get inside!" Marcello and I rushed in, not wanting to get hurt by her or Santino. Although Emma was small, she had a tendency to punch when angered. And Santino was just easily provoked. We walked into Emma's 'family room' where Mandy, Michel, Kaliyan, Seth, Emily and Skye were sitting and softly chattering.  
"Kaliyan? I thought you were coming at 8!" I was so confused.

"To do what? I don't even know why I'm here!" Kaliyan said, chuckling a little.  
"Don't you remember? I called you this morning?"  
"...No...Emma just told me to get over here." She grinned.  
I loved hanging out with all my friends, but I was just planning on hanging out with Emma. I wonder why everyone is here... Emma stood up in the middle of the room, in front of all of us, looking about ready to burst. I was almost worried, because Emma bursting was not always a good thing.

"Okay, guys. You know how we're off for MEA weekend, right?" Emma said, not waiting for us to answer. "Well, I thought it might be exciting to go someplace! Nowhere too fancy, but someplace nice. I think that everyone will love it, especially the boys. So guess where we're going?!" Again she didn't wait for us to answer. "Italy!" At first everyone was silent, taking in what she had just said. Then the chatter slowly started up, growing enthusiastically. Then, while Kaliyan and Mandy were almost squealing with excitement, Emma stood up again, impatiently now. After a couple minutes of waiting, Emma started trying to calm us down. "Okay! Okay! GUYS!" We were almost silent, save a few whispers. "Everyone's parents think that my parents are taking us all on this big adventure with their old frequent flier miles that were about to expire. We will be gone from today till Friday night. Does everyone understand the plan? 'Cause we need to get going." We grew silent. Then Kaliyan spoke.

"We're leaving now?! Today?! I mean, we haven't even packed!" Emma sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. You'll get your credit cards, and we'll go on a shopping spree so that you have enough stuff for the weekend, alright?" We all looked to one another, confused.

Then we looked in Emma's hands. There, spread out like a fan, were 10 small shiny silver cards. "Here, everyone grab one. Just sign and I'll take care of your expenses." She handed them out to everyone, along with a pen to sign our name on the back. "Okay. Come outside when you're done, so we can get going." Emma said. Of course, there was only one pen, so I was stuck being the last person to get it, as always. Marcello offered for me to go first, but I refused. It didn't really matter. I signed my signature in my quaint messy scrawl, and looked at it proudly. My first credit card. An important moment in a girl's history. Right before first shopping spree, but right after first date. I turned around to go, and realized that nobody was in the room. Maybe I was a little slow. I tossed aside the thought when I remembered how many of my friends had super human speed.

When I started walking toward Emma's front door, the room was bathed in a green light, and there was an odd airy sound coming from behind me. Almost the sound a blow torch makes. I turned back around and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the massive green fire that was bursting out of the fireplace. Then, just as quick as it had come, the fire vanished, leaving no marks, but a small, blonde boy in it's place. He walked towards me, his white blonde hair practically glowing from the sunlight now coming through the windows. I didn't know why, but some invisible force was keeping me where I was, not moving as the boy slowly advanced towards me. And then, I was nowhere.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_Now Mandy gets a turn to narrate the story! (This doesn't mean that Mandy wrote it all, by the way. I think Kaliyan and Emma split this chapter.) Yippee! Shortest one yet, but you'll live. ;)_

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**Mandy **

"Jaaaaanet?" I called in through the open front door. We'd been waiting outside for her for a few minutes, but she still hadn't come out yet. "Janet?" I listened hard. All I could hear was Emma's parents sleeping upstairs, nothing else. Not even Janet's heartbeat, and a heartbeat is something you want to hear all the time. I was just about to dash back into the family room when I heard a panicked scream behind me. I looked and saw Emily and Kaliyan flailing spastically. I was over to them in a half second, and looked desperately at Emma and the boys for information. Emma and the boys were looking really confused. I was about to ask what happened when Emma started flailing too. I didn't know what to do, they were standing there, obviously in pain, and I couldn't do anything, afraid I would hurt them more. Then, after a few minutes, they stopped.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" I asked, after we checked that they were alright.  
Emily answered me. "Well, all I know is that suddenly, I was being tossed about, but I did it to myself. Like I was forced to, ya know?" Then Skye took her in his arms in comfort. I sent calm feelings to my friends. I realized Janet was still missing.

"Where is Janny?" Kaliyan asked. "I mean, I thought she'd come outside with all the screaming... Oh no. She didn't fall asleep again, did she?"  
I shrugged then spoke. "I don't know. I was just about to go check. I didn't hear her, though." Everybody looked really concerned. We all ran inside, searching for any sign of Janet, though it was obvious she was gone.

"Dammit! Why can I never see these things before they happen?! I mean, I'm supposed to be a freakin' precognative! And can we please just go one year without any attacks?!" I could feel fear bubble in the pit of my stomach as we all gathered in Emma's kitchen. How many times would each of us be attacked/kidnapped? I could see this was how the others felt, too.

"Where are they?" I said. We needed to get Janny and she probably wasn't anywhere obvious. I looked at Emma, trying to give her the urgency of the question, but she was too busy on her phone.

"Yeah, yeah. First class, then! Okay, yes, switch them. Good. Thank you, goodbye." Emma said into the phone, then flipped it shut. Then she turned to us. "Okay, get in guys! We only have a couple hours and we still need to get "packed." Come on!" She said, more urgently when nobody moved, trying to push everyone into the van.

"Emma!" Kaliyan said for all of us. "What the fork?! Where are we going?!" Emma looked very annoyed. She then sighed. "Well, I saw Big Ben, and then I saw this huge castle in the countryside." We all stood still for a sec. Emma sounded really excited, and when nobody respond, she turned specifically to me and continued. "And then there was a huge closed-in area with six gold-ish colored hoops. In the sky, there were owls flying everywhere. And there was a lake-"

"Oh. My. God. Seriously?!" I said, finally understanding. Janet was at Hogwarts. Okay, this is officially the best rescue mission ever! I thought, as Emma nodded. Emily, Skye, Kaliyan, Seth, Santino, Marcello, and Michel all had the same face of confusion and horror. "Do you guys REALLY not get it??" When everybody shook their heads, I groaned and yelled, "Hogwarts!" As a look of realization spread across everyone's faces I helped Emma pull everyone into the car.  
"I can't believe it."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **_Nothing much to say this time. Just R+R! :D_

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**Distressa **

"I can't believe they did that! I just--ugh!" I was still pacing the common room. It started out as a joke. Going to use Janet to mess around with the other girls. But then they made them--ugh. I cringed just thinking about it. I looked at Janet. She looked okay in her Slytherin robes, but she still creeped me out with her unliveliness. I sniffed sadly. My arm still hurt from Scorpius's revenge. After he got into trouble for the potion in the girl's bathroom, he got double detention with Madame Thomas. He told me he was going to get me back for this. I started yelling at him, but then he attacked those girls in America! He decided instead to 'teach me a lesson' and hex my arm. I ran to Madame Pomfrey and her assistant, Ms. . They fixed it so that it hurt less, but it still twinged. Evil Scorpius. Then he goes off to hang around the castle and makes me watch Janet! Ugh!  
"My brothers are just horrid!" I exclaimed to Ivy.

"Hey! Distressa! Come on, let's go out to the Quidditch pitch. We can practice our flying for the lesson tomorrow!" Ivy said, trying to take my mind off my brothers. "Oh, your friend can come, too. Unless she wants to hang out with some other 6th years." I looked at Janet. She was right. Janet was 16. I nodded to Ivy.

"Okay! Janet likes to sit here, anyways. Bye Janet!" I yelled as we left the common room. As we walked down the hall, I thought about how others would get suspicious when she wasn't in any classes. I decided that enrolling her into some subjects would be a good idea. From what I gathered, she liked experiencing new and exciting things.

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"Wow! Tressa, you never told me you knew how to ride a broom so well! And Professor Ashia said you'd be amazing on the team! You should try out! I mean, you kept the Quaffle out of reach of even the 4th year boys! That's really somethin'. I'm telling you. You'll for sure become Keeper." Ivy and I had just gotten off the pitch and we were now in the Great Hall, eating supper. I reached for my favorite dessert, treacle tart, when Ivy spoke again. "Hey, what happened to your friend? The new 6th year girl?" I dropped the fork I had been using to eat my treacle tart into my pudding, and it splattered all over Ivy, Daniel (another first year), and me.

"I'm sooooooo sorry. I have to go!" I got up from my seat at the Slytherin table and dashed toward the large doors in the back of the Great Hall. I rushed into the common room. I saw no one there. "Janet?!" I shouted. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me. Janet was talking to Sophie Bately and some of her Slytherin friends. That group of friends included some other 6th and 7th years, like Thomas Chesterson. He and his separate group of friends were famous around the entire school, whether it was for their looks, their pranks, their ghastliness, or just their smarts. They were laughing and having a good time.

"Um, Janet?" I butted in. I didn't want to be pushy, especially with a bunch of older kids, but I needed to get Janet registered and back to the common room before we got caught with an Imperiused Muggle. Though I had barely anything to do with the plan, I was sure to be tied to it should we get caught.

"Oh Distressa! You did really spectacular on the Quidditch pitch today! Wait, do you know Janet? It's a wonder I've never met you before, Janet." Sophie turned to a smiling Janet. "If I would've met you earlier we would've clicked right away! I know we'll be great friends! But I still wonder why I had never seen you before..." Sophie trailed off. I interjected.

"Oh. Well, you see, she was studying abroad before and her parents wanted her back closer to home. She's my cousin, you see, and Father recommended her to the headmistress. By the way, I need to get her registered. Could I steal her for just a moment...?" I really did need to get her registered. Sophie and the others smiled and nodded at me, not suspecting a thing.

"See you guys later! Maybe we'll have classes together, Janet!" Then we walked out the door, heading for the headmistress's office. I was a bit surprised myself at how easily Janet had communicated with the others. Then I mentally slapped myself in the head. Of course, that would be something fixed by the spell. To make it less noticeable to the public. When we reached the old gargoyle I said, "Whispers," and the gargoyle lept aside revealing the old and yet still majestic-looking spiral staircase leading to the Headmistress' office.


	6. Chapter 6

**A****/N:** _We have a new really-really-short record. FYI, Seth belongs to Ms. Meyer, as we've established in a review. The other boyfriends belong to us writer people. AKA: whoever we say their girlfriend is. ;) Skylar, my boyfriend, is actually my boyfriend in my main novel that I'm working on. Just an interesting tidbit. ;)_

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**Kaliyan**

"Let me come with you!"  
"No, Seth! This is just...I don't know! You just can't come!" I said, crossing my arms.  
"Kaliyan," Seth pleaded, stroking my face. "How am I going to protect you when you're all the way in England?"  
"I can protect myself! I'm strong!"  
"Well, what if you get snapped up by some boy better than me? Then, what will I do?"  
"That will never happen." I reached up to my face and grasped the hand that was still there, entwining our fingers. When I looked around, I saw that all the rest of the girls were having similar conversations with their guys, less heated than ours was at the beginning; Mandy and Michel's heads were together, Emma and Santino were holding hands, Emily and Skye were hugging. Marcello was standing alone. It had taken us about a half hour to get to the airport after we stopped at the MOA for clothes and things. We needed to get going. I looked back to Seth. "I have to go."  
"I love you," he whispered brokenly, softly pressing his lips to mine.  
"I love you, too." I smiled. "Okay, girls! Time to go!" Everyone looked up and there was a gathering of bags. I was about to pick up my own, when a snow white hand grabbed my arm.  
"You HAVE to let me come," Marcello said, staring hard into my eyes with his own burning gold ones. I thought about it. He was Janet's boyfriend. He deserves to come, I thought. Glancing at him, I nodded.  
"Do you think we won't get stopped with our huge carry-ons?" Mandy asked. We had to use backpacks so we could carry them and not have to lug a suitcase around England to Hogwarts. We packed only 2 changes of clothes and small toiletries, like toothbrushes, deodorant, and a brush, but they were huge bags still.  
"I don't know, but I'm sure it'll be okay. Let's go," Emily said, leading the way into the airport.  
We had been waiting for what felt like forever to get in our newly arranged flight to London. We were all very tense, thinking about Janet. Finally we made it to the gate, but we found out that we were 3 hours early for our flight. We all sighed and took seats in front of the gate.

* * *

_Skylar: Awww, I hugged you. How cute._

_Me: *eyeroll* You're a pest sometimes. *pokes*_

_Skylar: And you're not? *pokes back*_

_Me: I didn't say that, did I?_

_Skylar: *sigh* No, you didn't._

_Me: HEY! YOU! YES, YOU WITH THE EYES THAT ARE PROCESSING THESE WORDS!!! Read and review please?_

_Skylar: *puppydog eyes* Pwease?_

_Me: He does puppydog eyes really well, seeing as he's a werewolf/shapeshifter... ;)_

_Skylar: It's one of my many talents._

_Me: But seriously. R+R. You'll be my best friend. :D_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **_I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "Wow, this one is long!" And you're right. This one is long. :D But no Skylar anymore.._

_Skylar: Awww. I know they'll all miss me lots and lots._

_Me: I'm sure they will, Skye. *kissondahed*_

_Skylar: :D_

_Aaaaanyway, enjoy the long chapter, courtesy of Emma's POV and...um...Mandy and someone else, who wrote it. And me, who edited it till my eyes bled (as with every word of this...). You're welcome! :D_

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**Emma **

"Um, no offense or anything, but I really have no idea who you are." I said, trying not to upset the house elf before me.

"Oh, yes. Miss Emma does not know anything about the elves. Wheezy was just happy to see Miss Emma for Wheezy has not seen her in many years. Only when Miss Emma was a baby." The creature said, nodding it's large head. I was half surprised that her large eyes didn't fall right out of her head. Then, I heard a shout.

"Wheezy! Get back here and do the laundry! Now!" The elf scurried off in fright. A woman with short, bobbed hair and a huge smile came out from behind the bar counter.

"Sorry 'bout that," She said. "I'm Tilly, the barmaid. Wheezy just likes to talk to the new folk around here. Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron. So? What'll ya have, hmm? Butterbeer? Firewhisky?" I looked back at my friends now standing a few feet behind me, some in shock, some confused.

"No, thank you. We were just wondering if you could take us to Diagon Alley." Mandy said, speaking for the first time. Tilly and all of the customers in the place turned their heads to find out who owned the bell voice whose ring still filled the room. They all had identical faces of wonder. I was smiling, but was somewhat unsurprised. Then, Tilly smiled slightly suspiciously and nodded, starting towards the back of the room. She dodged the large empty beer crates in the back with perfect skill, while 2 out of the 5 of us were dying to catch up. We almost smashed into a brick wall. Tilly tapped some different bricks on the wall with a deep mahogany stick she drew from her pocket. I instantly recognized it as a wand. As the bricks began to move, Tilly slid away from bustling street arised before us.

"You kids have fun, alright? And don't forget to come back!" Tilly said, with her voice fading as she moved back to the front of the shop.

We stepped into the colorful street. Across the sky, I could see firework-like things above, even though it was daylight. I could smell the sweet scent of chocolate, ice cream, incense, burning wood, and strangely, gunpowder. Our eyes were huge with all of this to take in. Kaliyan, when she had finished taking in the scene, gathered everyone around her so we could figure out what to do.

"Okay, this place is SO bomb," Kaliyan grinned and continued. "Where should we go to find out as much information as possible? Like, somewhere from the book. Mandy?" We all turned to Amanda, waiting for her opinion.

"Well, we could go to Ollivander's, I guess. Or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Or maybe even Gringotts?"

We were silent for a moment, and then Emily shouted, "Weasley Wizard Wheezes!" After hearing her say what I was thinking, I grabbed Mandy's hand and sprinted in the direction of the weird firecracker-like stuff, leaving Emily pulling Kaliyan to go faster. I didn't even notice Mandy was trying to pull back, obviously not hard enough that it would hurt. After about a minute of this, I got tired and slowed. We all happened to stop in front of a Wizard beauty shop. I saw a girl wearing a white sweatshirt with blue lettering on the front and arms, looking at a sign proclaiming a potion that cured all acne and other blemishes. She turned to go into the shop, and then caught sight of us. She screamed happily. Kaliyan gasped.

"Oh my gosh!" Kaliyan exclaimed, as the girl ran to embrace us.

"Sydney?! What are you doing here?!" I yelled. Sydney was a friend from school and known for popping up in places and also for surprising me, but this was new.

"I have to tell you something. It happened a little while ago..."

"Oh my god, you're pregnant!" Kaliyan exclaimed jokingly. We all chuckled.

"No. I come here every couple weeks to look at the shops and stuff." Syd mumbled.

"But...how'd you know all this was real? And how did you get here?! It took us an hour to find the Leaky Cauldron alone! And you didn't tell us anything about this?! Not even me?!" Mandy said, flinging all of her questions at Sydney.

"Well, I have to tell you guys something...I c-can teleport places. And I never told you about it or Diagon Alley, I'm sorry," she said. We all just stared at her in shock. "I figured out that when I thought of a place I wanted to go and concentrated on it, I could get there. Are you guys mad at me?" Sydney wondered. "Don't be mad, please! I can't take it if you're mad!" That was true. If you were mad at Sydney, she would get really sad.  
"I'm not mad." Kaliyan commented slowly, and everyone else agreed. "One second, Syd." Kaliyan turned away from her and toward us. She motioned us in and whispered to us. "Do you think we should tell her about us, since she told us about her teleportation?" We went into a deep discussion, finally agreeing to tell her.  
"Sydney, we've also been keeping a secret from you, too." I explained.  
"What?"  
"Well, Mandy didn't actually get plastic surgery because of a deformity she got from a burn. And Kaliyan didn't go through a growth spurt. We aren't in a club together that takes us out of school every so often." Emily said. "Mandy is a vampire, as are Marcello, Michel, and Santino. Kaliyan, Skye, and Seth are werewolves, but Kaliyan can control people. We left Michel, Santino, Seth and Skye in Minnesota. Emma is psychic, Janet is telepathic with objects AND people, and I'm an Elemental--I can control the wind."  
Sydney just stared. "Whoa." Then, she glanced at the faces of our group, finally looking at me, confused. "But... Where is Janet?"  
"She's at Hogwarts. She was kidnapped, like the Quileute packs, Kaliyan, and I were at different times," Emily answered. Just then, Kaliyan chuckled.

"What is it?" Mandy asked her.

"It's just that I realized Seth and I have been kidnapped 2 times each." A few of us smiled.

"So what does that mean then?" Sydney wondered. And when I opened my mouth to answer, Sydney added, "And I know, we need to save her. But, I mean, what's the next step. Catch me up." She looked excited by the suspense.

"Well, we were just about to go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to find out what's been going on in the wizarding world." I said.

"Sounds like a plan. Follow me!" And she led us through the streets of Diagon Alley, all of us staring in wonder at the countless stores carrying wands, brooms, magical toys, and one stand selling Dark objects, which I didn't quite understand. Why would someone sell Dark objects right in the middle of the street? Hello, Ministry of Magic? Then, all of our eyes practically popped out of their sockets when we reached it.

The entire front of the store was covered in every color of the rainbow. There were bright signs advertising products, moving objects in the windows, and so many other things we just stood outside the door for a few seconds, taking it all in. That is, until Sydney dragged us all inside. It was even more magnificent behind the front door.  
"Whoa! Puking Pastilles!" Emily exclaimed. We all ran over to look at the various different wonders of the store.  
"Well, hello again, Bramer!" One of the Weasley twins strode out of one of the many aisles of the joke shop. He looked at us, a smile on his face. "These must be friends of yours, yes? Any friends of Bramer are friends of mine. Hello, I'm George Weasley," he said, reaching to shake Kaliyan's hand.  
"Kaliyan," she said, grinning back and, instead of shaking his hand, giving him a knuckle punch.  
"Pleasure." He went on to greet Mandy. "Hello, who are you?"  
"Hi! My name is Amanda," she squealed, being a total fangirl. George shook her hand, then flinched a little because of the cold. He kept smiling, though.  
"Emily," Emily introduced herself, smiling and shaking his hand, as well.  
"Hey, I'm Emma." I said, and the red-haired man grasped my hand.  
"Hello, I am Marcello." George and Marce just kind of waved to each other, still friendly, though.

"So what brings you lot down here?" He asked. We all just kind of looked at one another, until Kaliyan decided to speak up.

"Someone stole our friend and took her to Hogwarts. We don't know who or why, but we came here for information on how we could get there," she reeled off. He looked kind of overwhelmed at first, but then his curiosity took over.

"When was she kidnapped?"

"Around 8 am this morning, our time. So 4 pm here," Marce piped up.

"What would you like me to do?" George wondered.  
"Could you tell us how to get to Hogwarts? Or have you seen any suspicious people with a body bag or something?" I said.  
Kaliyan snickered, and George smirked.  
"Blimey, of course, I can tell you how to get to Hogwarts! Better yet, I can take you there. And I am sorry to say I have not seen any blokes with a body bag."  
"But how are you going to get us there?" Mandy asked.

"Follow me." He grinned and turned around, weaving his way through the crowd to the back of the store. There, he led us through a door and to a small room with a small pot of green powder and a fireplace. "I needed to go to Hogsmeade myself, but I could take you there. I have a buddy that's a teacher in Hogwarts so you'll be fine."  
After a second of us all standing there, George seemed to suddenly remember we had no experience with floo powder.

"Okay, just take the powder in your hand. Stand in the fireplace and say clearly 'Professor Longbottom's study, Hogwarts'," he said nodding at us. Sydney took the powder first and stepped into the fire. Then, she echoed the words that George had instructed her . The rest of us followed her lead.

The flames were warm when I first stepped in, and once I started spinning, I thought I was going to be sick. It was weird, like being sucked through a giant drain. But soon I was standing with Sydney, Kaliyan, Emily, Mandy, and Marce, in a beautiful room with massive amounts of greenery. And it was filled with green-tinged smoke. Everyone was coughing. And then I laughed as I was stifling back a cough. We were in Hogwarts! This was so awesome!

* * *

_Skylar: You missed me, didn't you? Didn't you? Well, if you missed me, then R+R to say so._

_..._

_..._

_Skylar: Muahahahaha, me and my trickiness.  
_


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **_Okay, I know what you're thinking NOW, too. You're thinking "Heeey, this is Emily's POV, and it's the longest chapter so far. Is Emily being mean?" And, actually, I didn't write a single word of this. I edited, true, but that was just random letters and punctuation, not WORDS. They just love me so much that they granted me with an uberly long chapter. That's how cool I am. ;) Enjoy!_

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**Emily**

As the smoke cleared, I smiled. This was so awesome! I mean Hogwarts? Amazing! Then I turned, almost running into a tall man, in dirt covered robes.

"Um...Excuse me? What are you doing here?" The man asked.

"Sorry, Neville." George said, coughing. "This is Sydney, Kaliyan, Emma, Emily, Amanda, and Marcello. They needed to get to the castle to find their friend. Apparently, she has been kidnapped and stolen away to the castle. Sorry, I didn't get a chance to tell you. Well, I best be off. Good day." George walked back into the chimney and said, "Hogsmeade," leaving behind a fresh puff of green smoke.

"Well..." Neville said. He looked very confused and uncomfortable. Then Marcello spoke.

"Excuse me, but we were wondering if you knew anything about our friend. Her name is Janet Holmes. If you have seen her around the castle, here is a picture." Marcello took a picture of Janet standing at the edge of a pool, laughing and smiling, out of his wallet. Marcello looked morbid as he handed the picture to Neville.

Emma bumped me and whispered, "If I didn't know better, he was Eddy in South America." She was talking about when Edward left Bella and almost killed himself. I shushed her, but I couldn't help but remind myself that it was true.

"Ah, yes," Neville interrupted my mind-wanderings. "Yes. She's in my 6th year Herbology class, and a Slytherin. Hangs out with a..." Neville was searching for a name. "A....."  
"Distressa Malfoy," Emma supplied.  
"Yes. That's the name of her. Distressa also has brothers, Scorpius and Xavier." Neville said this with a sound of disgust. When he saw our puzzled faces, he continued, "If anyone takes after their father the most around here, Scorpius and Xavier would tie. Evil, mean boys. And abusive to their sister. She isn't actually that mean. Takes after her mother, Astoria Greengrass. She was one of the nicer girls in Slytherin."

"Wait! Emma, do mean Malfoy as is Draco Malfoy? As in enemy of Harry Potter, Lucius Malfoy's son, Malfoy? Like Death Eater, helper of Voldemort, Malfoy?" Amanda asked. Her voice was getting louder with every sentence. Emma just nodded. I looked over at Marcello. His face was an image of pure hatred and disgust.

"Well, I can take you to her. But everything will be fine. Meanwhile, everyone needs to get to bed. Dinner is over, but I bet the kitchens are still open. Why don't I take you down for some supper and then fix a couple beds for the night? I'll make a room in my House. Follow me." With a swish of his robes, he turned, opened the door and led us down to the last floor. He reached up for the fruit in a painting, and touched it. Then, a massive kitchen full of bustling house elves appeared in front of us.

"Trenchy, you make the most marvelous pumpkin cake. Could you also give that to our guests?" Neville said to a passing elf.  
Then Mandy spoke, "Um...Trenchy? Could you make me and Marcello just some raw steaks? We don't really like them cooked." The elf nodded. One of the elves in the kitchen started to stare at Emma. I nudged her to tell her so.

"What?" Emma said to me. Then, she looked where I was pointing. "Oh. Um. Excuse me? Why are you staring?" Emma said to the house elf. The elf smiled at her.

"Why, Miss Emma, Sugar is just happy to see you alive and with such marvelous friends," the elf said. We all were smiling when we looked at her. We all did a double take, confused.

"What? I mean, what do you mean?" Kaliyan said. We all nodded in confusion as we were handed our plates with our meals. The other elves showed us a place to sit. The table was filled with drinks, dishes, salads, fruits, vegetables, sides, desserts and so much more. I almost forgot the little elf's confusing words to Emma. "Sit, sit. Let Sugary tell you the tale of Miss Emma," exclaimed the house elf.

Sugary told us the story of Emma's past. Emma once lived in Dufftown. Her parents were elves and big supporters of Harry Potter, as were their masters. After her parents were killed, she was carried into many homes. Like the Leaky Cauldron, Hogwarts and many other Wizard family's homes. After a year of moving from from house to house, one family gave Emma to the family that was now hers. Far away from the catastrophe here, and in a non-wizarding family. This explained her shortness and her ability to see into the future, as elves were short and had magic.

"Wait. If my parents were elves and had masters, why don't I look more like you, Sugary?" Emma asked, looking very shaken.

"They were Populus elves, not house elves. They appeared like humans, but worked as house elves. Their names were Aerona and Elwood. They loved you very much," Sugary said. She took our plates and asked us if we wanted anything else. We replied that we did not.

"Well, I guess we should get you to your rooms," Neville commented after a long pause. "We want you well rested. Follow me, please." He showed us the way up to the Main Floor, then up more and more stairs. He started telling us different snippets and facts about Hogwarts Castle as we passed by the different walls and rooms and paintings. Soon, we came to a oil painting a huge lady in a pink dress.

"Um, Neville? What are we doing here?" I asked. "This is the Gryffindor Dorms, right? And you're the Hufflepuff Head of House, right?" I was really confused.

"Common misconception. You are usually the representation of the House you were in when you were at school." Neville smiled. Then, he turned to the Fat Lady. "Edward Cullen." After the portrait swung open, Neville whispered, "She's obsessed with the Twilight series. Somebody gave her a full set of the series and ever since every password has been Twilight-related. Last term it was Nessie. Whatever that means." We walked into the common room, filled with portraits and comfy looking chairs and a beautiful fireplace, embers still aglow and every so often, bursting up like fireworks. While many students still had on their school uniforms, most had loosened their ties and taken off cloaks after a long school day. Some were walking up to their rooms, some reclining by the fire, and a few were reading The Daily Prophet.

"Whoa," Emma yelled in awe. "This is so cool!" Abruptly, the chattering common room fell silent. "Oops."

"Okay. Just the silence we needed." Neville said. "I would like to introduce to you all some new guests of ours. Amanda, Emma, Emily, Sydney, Kaliyan and Marcello. They will be rooming here for the night and might need to come with some of you to your classes. Please be pleasant to them, and have a wonderful evening." With that, Neville turned and walked out the room, through the porthole, and back to his study.  
We spun around from looking at Neville leave, and found the occupants of the Gryffindor common room together in groups, whispering. Kaliyan softly smiled. "Hey, what's up?" she asked. They just stared at her. She sighed and, seeing an empty armchair, running over to it and flopping down. "I am so tired," she mumbled. We followed her, more uneasy than her at the moment. I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw a teenage girl with red hair, not like Emma's, but more red. She had deep green eyes and, when she smiled at us, it lit up the whole room.  
"Hello! My name is Scarlett. Scarlett Summers. Pleased to meet you. I'm in 6th Year, what about you all?"  
I smiled back. "We're all 6th Years. I'm Emily, this is Amanda, Sydney, Emma, Marcello, and...Kaliyan." I pointed to all of them, but when I got to Kaliyan, she had fallen asleep in the armchair already. Scarlett grinned, and motioned a boy over from one of the groups.  
"This is Ryan. He'll help your friend--Marcello, is it?---up to the boys' dormitories. I'll bring the rest of you up to the girls' dormitories and find you places to sleep. I'm afraid that we don't have any more beds, so you will have to lie on the floor." We nodded, signaling that this was okay. Ryan waved and gave Syd an especial smile. I snickered. Ryan was totally crushing. I mean, Ryan was cute; shaggy dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and he wasn't at all pudgy. I turned and poked Kaliyan hard. She jumped and her eyes opened drearily.  
"Wha'?"  
"Come on, Kaliyan, we're going up to the girls' dormitories. You have to get up for a little bit, it's only up the stairs," Mandy replied gently. Kaliyan got up and we followed Scarlett up the winding stairs to the right, as Marcello went up the stairs to the left, walking behind Ryan. We entered a roundish room, with beds circling a wood-burning stove in the center. There were obvious feminine touches to the the room. There were a few flowers, and a candle here and there, but the beds all had maroon sheets and there wasn't any pink. Each bed had a trunk set at the end, some with different stickers covering them, showing of each girl's personality; one was bright pink (the only pink in the room). The room's walls were covered in moving posters of hot, happening wizard actors, I was guessing. There was one especially handsome guy that caught my eye.  
I pointed and whispered to Scarlett, "Who is that?" She giggled.  
"That's Jack Williams, from the film Sunstruck." Another girl looked at me, "Do you live on Mars?! He's the most adorable, greatest, wizard ever!!" Then she fell on her bed with a swooning look on her face. From the corner of my eye, I saw Emma making a vomiting motion as she sat on the floor. I smiled.

"Hey, um... I think I'll go step outside for a bit," Mandy said. "Need some fresh air, ya know?" As she turned for the door, I noticed her eyes were coal black. Emma looked at me warningly and mouthed, "She's gonna blow!"

"Hey! I think I'll come with you. You'll probably need a guide, and I was just thinking about getting some fresh air, too!" a pale blonde girl said in an airy voice. "My name is Lola." She put out her hand for Amanda to shake it.

One of Mandy's eyes started to slightly twitch. She had the Edward-psycho look on. "I need to go outside alone. Now." Lola was taken aback, as were all the other girls. Kaliyan grabbed Mandy's arm and pulled her quickly out of the room and down the stairs, as she was the only one who could defend herself and hold her back if she exploded with thirst. There was silence in the girls' dormitories.  
"What's her problem?!" a girl burst out. Emma, Sydney, and I glanced at each other. We had no idea how to explain what just happened.  
"Spell gone wrong. Very bad result as you can tell. No one really likes to talk about it," Emma told them. All the girls nodded, seeming to accept her excuse.

"Poor girl." Scarlett said, lying face-up on her bed. There was a really awkward silence following her words. "So...you may use these to sleep on." Scarlett had gotten up and dug through a closet, pulling out a couple spare blankets and throwing them to us. We sat them down--as well as blankets for Kaliyan and Amanda--at awkward angles to fit them all in, then settled down. Then the girls started to talk about their days at school, while Emma and I just kind of sat there looking at each other. We eventually just listened to the girls rant about homework. Then, about 2 hours after they had left, Kaliyan and Mandy came back.

"Hey. Sorry 'bout that." Mandy said, sitting down on one of the blankets we had set out. "So, what are we talking about?" We all just stared at her.

"Oh," said Scarlett, "we were just discussing how much homework we were given. Will you lot be taking classes while you're here?"

"Yeah, we would be glad to tag along to some of yours, if that's okay," Sydney piped in.

"Of course!" Scarlett continued. "Most of us have the same classes, except Lola over there." She nodded to the blonde girl who had offered to accompany Amanda, who was now sitting on her bed. Lola looked up from the magazine she was reading, the Quibbler, and smiled at us, bright red radish-like fruits dangling from her ears. "She still takes Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination, when the rest of us don't. And Margaret," she nodded to another girl sitting on her bed, her head so close to the book she was reading Spellman's Syllabry. "is taking the same as us, but she's also taking Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes--"  
"I GOT IT!" Emma screamed, making us all jump. She was looking at Lola. "Your mom is Luna Lovegood! The radish earrings, the Quibbler!" Lola smiled and nodded. Emma's look of excitement changed into thoughtfulness. "Well, who is your dad then?"  
"You won't know him. My father's name is Luke Lockwood. But Mum decided to keep her maiden name, and gave Father's to me." She smiled ear to ear.  
"Good, we're getting to know each other! Now, I'll get a roll of parchment and we'll write down who you are going to classes with." Scarlett took out a quill, ink bottle, and a slightly yellow piece of paper. As she wrote, the sky slowly darkened and the torches on the walls flickered to life, lighting the dormitory with a flickering light that made me feel at once at home, comfortable.

* * *

_Skylar: *finishes reading* Dude, I wasn't in there, either!!!_

_Me: Um, Skylar, we left you at home, because you didn't need to come._

_Skylar: *pouts* Of course I needed to come. I always need to be everywhere._

_Me: That's what you think..._

_Skylar: *sticks out tongue*_

_Me: ANYWAY, you won't be in here for a loooong time, so be patient._

_Skylar: How long is a loooong time?_

_Me: Long. Now shh, and let me finish writing our kissing scene._

_(Yep, that's what I'm doing right now. Writing Skylar kissing me, for my novel-in-progress. It's pretty fun. xD)  
_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **_So this one, as you can see, is fairly short. Suck it up. :D It's also Skye-less, but I'll go ask him to say hi at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!_

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**Distressa**

The hallways were just as crowded as usual as I walked from Transfiguration to Potions. I had gotten Janet into her classes alright, and I was starting to get really angry with Scorpius for making me do all his dirty work for him. I finally made it into the dark, clouded Potions room, and took my seat. We shared this class with the Gryffindor first years, and there was a small group of girls that walked in just then that caught my attention. They were walking in a little group, all huddled together, whispering. Once they took their seats, their voices drifted to my ears.

"I heard that they came to kidnap someone and take her back home with them," a blonde said.

"No way," said a red head sitting next to her. "They seem really nice to me. And why would Professor Longbottom let them stay if they were planning to capture students? Listen to yourself. If they were up to something, he would know."

"I guess you're right, but I still think their reason for being here isn't innocent. Jimmy said he saw two of them sneaking into the Forbidden Forest last night!"

"Really? You're sure?"

"Yup. And they're going to classes with some 6th years. And when I saw them in the hall, it was obvious that they were looking for someone. Someone specific." I stopped listening. It was starting to sound less and less like gossip and more like a horror story. Still, it worried me. What if what the girls said was true? What if they were friends of Janet's, and they came to save her? I would be the one to face Scorpius if something happened to her. His one precious chance to "rid us of Harry Potter."

What was I thinking? The chance that these visitors had anything to do with Janet was one in a million.

The rest of the day was very unexciting, except for when I ran into Scorpius and Xavier in the hallway on my way to the Great Hall for supper. Scorpius gave me the sly smile that I loathed, and stopped in front of me. I tried to ignore him, to keep on walking. But he stuck his arm out it front of me so I couldn't continue.

"Nice work," he said. "You did better than even I would've done."

"Whatever." I said, trying to push past him, without success.

"Not so fast. I've got another job for you." A small group of his friends had gathered, pressing in on me.

"No way. I'm not doing anymore of your dirty work. You're on your own." I tried again to get out, but his friends had practically formed a circle around me.

"Fine. If that's how you want it." He pulled his wand out from under his robes and pointed it at me. Xavier stood there and smirked.

"Alright! Alright!" I held my hands up in front of me, in surrender. "What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to check out our visitors. Make friends. I think they might have something to do with that stupid muggle, but I don't know what. Their appearance is just too coincidental."  
"Why can't you do it yourself?"  
"You're a girl. Girls talk to each other more. They wouldn't tell me anything."

"Fine, now leave me alone," and I finally snuck my way through them. I walked at a faster pace once I got farther away from them and nearer to the Great Hall. I decided that these visitors must be staying with the Gryffindors, since it seemed that they were the only ones who knew this morning, until it spread around the school. I dashed toward the huge double doors, so I would not miss all the food. Once I got through them, I walked because I didn't want to look suspicious.  
I noticed that most of the occupants of the Hall were subtly talking and pointing at a group of 4 girls and 1 boy, who were leaning in close to chat with each other, sitting at the Gryffindor table. They must be the newcomers, I concluded. Ignoring them, even though I was curious, I sat down between Ivy and Janet. Janet was staring off into the distance, as she often did.  
"'Tressa, did you see the new students? They're all 6th years. And that boy! Wow." Ivy sighed dreamily. I grunted in acknowledgement, secretly worrying about the fact that they were 6th years.... just like Janet. I sincerely hoped it was just a concurrence.

* * *

_Skylar: Emily doesn't know if "concurrence" is a word, and if so, what it means. So if you do know, please tell her so that she can fix it, because it's kind of bugging her and she's too lazy to go look it up. She also doesn't want to admit any of this, which is why I'm telling you. She ran away to the office, leaving me with her laptop...oh, the fun I will have! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!_

_...Just kidding. I'm just going to type my message like a good little boy, or Emily's going to write herself kicking me into next week...which isn't REALLY possible, of course, since she's a w-i-m-p and I'm an awesome, strong werewolf, but anything's possible with fiction, right?_

_Anyway, um...hm. Just ran out of things to--crap, Emily's coming back. Gotta hide before she sees what I wrote about her intense wimpiness...Bye! Nice talking to you folks! And...well, nice knowing you, in case she decides to follow my advice (for once) and ACTUALLY kick me into next week. Then again, she'd probably miss me then, and write that she didn't do it...which would be fine...but it'd still suck._

_Me: I AM NOT A WIMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...Okay, maybe I'm SORT OF a wimp. But I could--and will--kick Skylar's butt. I'd just keep him inside of today, so I can kick his butt aaaalll day long. Yippee! Anyway, that's all. I'm off to write more Adventures in Fandom._

_Never heard of Adventures in Fandom? Well, get on over to my profile and read it!!! NOW!!! *monster snarl* Jus' kidding about the monster snarl and the "NOW!!!". But seriously, read it. My friend Lovina Holmes are collaborating on it, and I must say that it's pretty awesome. So, bye people! Read and review? Pretty please with various toppings on top?  
_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: **_This one's pretty long, and also Skye-less. Of course. As I told you that 99% of the story would be. Anyway, enjoy.

* * *

_

**Sydney **

Our first day at Hogwarts had been pretty boring. After our classes, we were all sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, next to Scarlett and Ryan, eating dinner. There had been a lot of gossip and whispering in the halls as we went to our classes, and it was the same here. Most of the people at our table had been trying to listen in to our conversation as we ate, so we had to lean close together to keep out eavesdroppers. I just wanted to give them the evil eye and tell them to back off, but decided against it. Ryan was trying to talk to me all the time, inching closer every so often. I mean, he was really hot, but I needed to concentrate on Janet.  
We hadn't seen her in the castle, because we hadn't had any classes with the Slytherins. Marcello had been the most disappointed about how the day went, and he wasn't hiding it. He was slouched over in his seat, staring at his empty plate as though Janet would be floating on the surface, telling him where to find her. Neither Marce or Mandy had taken any food.

"So we didn't find her today, but I think we'll have a much better chance tomorrow. Scarlett says first up is Potions with the Slytherins," Kaliyan said, trying to act cheery. She had been trying to look at the bright side, and keep us motivated. Emma, however, was doing the opposite.

"Yeah, sure. Everything will be fine! We'll find her in no time! The sun will come out tomorrow!" Emma droned, then took a mouthful of mashed potatoes. She almost seemed overly depressed, like she'd burst out in tears soon.

"Well, sorry for trying to be optimistic." Kaliyan snapped. We were all silent for a second.

"Has anyone even thought," Marce started, still staring into the depths of his plate. "To look over at the Slytherin table to see if she was sitting there?" He almost sounded angry.

"Oops," Emily said, and we all turned around to face the Slytherins.

"Whoopdeedoo. Slytherins." Emma said, turning back to her food. I didn't see anything very important along the table, just a bunch of students, eating and going about their lives. I had almost looked over the entire table, when something blocked my view.

"Hello!" The girl standing in front of me said, offering me her hand. I shook her hand. "My name is Distressa Malfoy, Slytherin, 1st year."

"I'm Sydney Bramer, Jefferson, 6th year." I smiled, but inside I was panicking. Wasn't this the girl Professor Longbottom had said was hanging around Janet?! But she just looked confused.

"What's... Jefferson?" she asked.

"One sec, thanks." I quickly turned around to face my friends again. Everyone's faces seemed to match the panic I felt inside me. Not scared panic, more like excited, freaking-out panic.

"Do you think she's the one who kidnapped Janet?" I asked in an extremely low voice, so she wouldn't hear me. We all turned to Emma. She just nodded. "What do I say, then?!"  
"I don't know! Say anything!" Emma muttered, still looking dejected.  
"Thanks. That was so helpful," I hissed at them. I flipped back around towards Distressa. Fits her; evil-sounding name, evil girl. "Sorry 'bout that. So...um...are all the Slytherins evil and mad like I've heard?" I smiled at her to show I was joking. She grinned back charmingly.  
"Well, not most of them." This Distressa seemed nice, except for the fact that she stole Janet. I decided to get her to invite us to the Slytherin table. She would probably sit us down right next to Janet! All I had to do was make her believe we weren't searching for Janny.  
"Anyway, we all are visiting from another wizarding school." The others nodded.  
"Oh! What school?" Distressa wondered.  
"Académie de Magie Beauxbâtons," Mandy replied, thinking quickly. Emily nudged her and smiled, signaling this was going well. Distressa was almost bouncing at the excitement of hearing this.  
"Beauxbatons!" She exclaimed, but then frowned. "Where are all your books, parchment, quill and wands? And your blue silk?" This time, Kaliyan spoke.  
"We decided to leave our belongings back in France. We are just going to observe the lessons and get to know Hogwarts. Madame Maxine told us we were supposed to wear street clothing and not perform any magic. We were chosen out of all the students, since we were the top of the classes!" she boasted. Distressa softly sighed, obviously relieved about something.  
"You all are so interesting! You must come sit with my friends and I at the Slytherin table; I want you to have a nice welcome, even from the evil ones." She winked and motioned us to get up. As we did, Scarlett, the girl we met in the common room, uttered a gasp.  
"Where are you going?" she asked frantically. Emma waved her question off and we trooped over to a table on the far right with a green and silver banner hanging over it. I tried not to make it too obvious that I was searching for Janet as we got closer to the long table. People all around the Great Hall were staring and a new round of whispers erupted as we took our seats in the middle of the table. Distressa sat next to a girl who was now looking at us like she thought we were going to explode, her eyes almost bulging.

"Ivy," Distressa said to the girl, who seemed to have pulled out of her trance. "This is Sydney Bramer, and..." We all took turns introducing ourselves, trying to stay in the conversation that followed as hard as we could. Then I saw that both Mandy and Kaliyan had their eyes fixed on something, which kind of pissed me off. It was like they weren't even trying to act natural and go along with the Beauxbatons story Distressa was now sharing with the table. Then I turned, reluctantly, to follow their gaze. The second I saw her, I remembered the reason we had come to the green table, and my irritation dissolved. There, a few seats from the end of the Slytherin table, was Janet. Laughing and talking with new friends, wearing her black robes and a glaming bladge with the silver and green crest.

* * *

_Skylar's not here right now, and I'm getting carpal tunnel from all the stories I'm working on right now -- Adventures in Fandom, Twin Telepathy (my novel-in-progress, starring Skye), this, and a few other personal stories that I just decided to write. I'm also editing a story for Lovina (sort of. Sorry, Vina!! I'll get to that later. It's just that writing is more fun than editing...*puppydog face*_

_..._

_..._

_Dang, I just can't do that nearly as well as Skye can. Anyway, in short I've got lots on my hands, story-wise, and I'm tired (it's a quarter past midnight here, and I've been staying up till 2am almost every day recently), so...that's all for now. :D Buh-bye now!  
_


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **_Um, yeah...so I was gone at camp for a little while, but now I'm back to post more. So yay! We're actually almost done writing it (thanks to me :D), but I'm a slow document-maker-and-poster, so...ANYWAY, here's chapter 11. More coming up._

**Kaliyan **

"But I still don't get how Janet could be so chummy with these Slytherin jokes." Sydney said. We had been discussing our options ever since we made it back to the common room after dinner. We had had to endure at least another half hour at the Slytherin table talking about our lives in France and magic, also a bunch of other stuff before we were able to make an excuse to leave.

"I know," I said, "I would've thought she'd be freaking out and trying to get back. Or at least looking out of place. But she was just sitting there, chattering away. It's completely crazy!"  
"She didn't even notice us!" Emily exclaimed. "You'd think she would remember her own closest friends, and her boyfriend, right?"  
"That's what's so weird. What should we do about it, anyway?" Mandy wondered. We all thought carefully. Marce was the one who finally came up with an idea, after we tossed many stupid rescue ones around.  
"Let's just wait until tomorrow, when we have class with Slytherin. There, we could confront her or something and maybe figure out why she doesn't notice or remember us! And all the other questions we have. She's a 6th year, correct?" We all nodded and smiled in anticipation for the next day's events.  
Emma then glanced at her watch. "We should do something. It's still early," she commented. I quickly stood up and turned around, almost smashing into a group of 5 boys about our age wearing crisp white shirts, loosened red and gold ties, and black pants.  
"Oops! I'm sorry!" One of the guys grinned flirtingly at me.  
"Hey, it's fine," he said. I backed away a little bit. He was good-looking. His friends, I was assuming, were mostly looking at the group behind me. They shot jealous looks at Marcello and coy ones at Syd, Emma, Mandy, and Emily. Especially Mandy, with her being the vampire and automatically the most attractive. I turned back to our group, most of them looking annoyed.

"What do you think we should do then?" I asked, mainly trying to ignore the boys who now sat themselves down across the room from us.

"Let's just get out of here, for a start." Syd said. We all got up fast and ran out of the common room, obviously thinking the same thing. Get away from the creeper boys. Once the portrait closed behind us, I started to laugh.  
"So, should we wreak havoc somewhere or...find the Room of Requirement?!" I grinned.  
"Well, if we wrought havoc, we could get kicked out. We're not that special," Mandy contradicted.  
"To the Room of Requirement!" Sydney yelled, punching her fist in the air and running like a kid in a Superman costume. Then, we ran crazily down the halls and corridors up the stairs to the seventh floor.

* * *

We wandered the halls of Hogwarts until one of the teachers told us to go back to our dorms, but when we made it back to the common room, it was hard not to notice that the boys from earlier had decided to wait for us. We quickly said goodnight to Marcello, and then dashed up the spiral staircase to our dormitories. The rest of the night was boring, what with listening to the chatter made by our roommates, making it hard to fall asleep. But we all had really high hopes for the next day, because we were finally going to get to the bottom of what was going on.  
I got out of bed and stretched after the alarm went off, moving to grab some black jean shorts and a lime green camisole. The rest of the Gryffindor girls were doing the same, with different clothes, of course. I started sprinting down the stairs when I slipped because the stairway just turned into a giant slide. As I slid down, I saw Marcello at the bottom, looking very confused. I guessed that he tried to get up to the girls' dormitories because he wanted to talk to us, and he didn't know what would happen if he did. All the students in the common room were having hysterics at his ignorance. I grabbed on to his arm, pulling myself off the ground. The slide had turned back into stairs and I whispered to Marce.  
"Don't ever try going up there. See what will happen? Girls can come up to the boys' dorms because...that's just the way it is. In the mornings, meet us in the common room, okay?"

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Emily wondered as she slid gracefully down, having seen the slide beforehand, Mandy, Sydney, and Emma following behind her.  
"Let me see," Emma said, pulling out a schedule that Scarlett had lent to us. "First we have Potions with the Slytherins..." At this part, Emma grinned at us. "After that, it's Transfiguration, then there's Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Ravenclaws, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies." I smiled at the thought of how we could really ace that last class.  
We went out the porthole and down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I'm not a big breakfast person, even though I'm a werewolf, but at Hogwarts they had a ton of choices that I couldn't get at home. Sitting down at the long Gryffindor table, I piled my plate with a couple cinnamon chocolate chip muffins and a few pieces of bacon. As we were stuffing our faces, we kept on the lookout for Janet. Finally, she walked through the huge Hall doors. I almost choked on my food in surprise (no one noticed of course). I just decided not to look at her anymore. It hurt too much, knowing that she wasn't paying any attention to us. I kept repeating in my head, Potions class, Potions class, everything will be alright, just wait for Potions class...

I strode into Potions, sitting down at a desk by all of my friends, even including Janet. She just glanced at me and looked away to her new Slytherin best friend, a 6th year boy. I just sighed and looked around the room. It was still located in the dungeon area, so it was a little dark, with lighted lamps along the walls every so often. Some Slytherins were looking at our group curiously.  
The professor walked in. "Welcome, everyone. Today, we'll discuss one of the strongest sleeping potions every invented. It is so powerful, that it is otherwise known as the Drought of Living Death. It is a quite difficult potion, and I'm not expecting perfection from anybody. You'll need to get started straight away. There is plenty of the ingredients you'll need in the student cupboard right over here," He moved a hand over on the large wooden cabinet behind his desk. "And you can find the instructions on page 10 of Advanced Potion Making. You may begin." As I turned to the correct page in my borrowed book, I realized we would just have to talk to Janet after class. There was no socializing, so that the teacher knows no one is cheating, although I was sure that some of them had other ways to cheat.  
In the end, my potion was a bubbling mess, not the "smooth current-colored liquid" that the book described. Only one person in the class had managed to make a Drought of Living Death good enough. Of course, none of us had the Half-Blood Prince/Snape's book, but this boy was really good. It was the boy that Janet was talking to at the beginning. Now I could see why Janet might like him; he's smart, talented, and I'd even say he was cute. Marcello had a jealous look on his face, and I'm guessing it just wasn't the potion-making.

When the Professor excused us from class, we all gathered in a group outside the door, waiting for Janet to pass us. I told Scarlett that we were just waiting for a friend, and that she could go ahead, we could find the Transfiguration room.  
Right after Scarlett walked away, Janet stepped out of Potions, again chatting with the Slytherins comfortably. "Janet," I said.  
"What?" She asked irritably, turning around. She raised her eyebrows when she saw our group. "Do I know you?" She signified her friends to go ahead, who were still standing there, warily. She looked at each of our faces. Her eyes got bigger a little when she saw Marcello. He came forward, taking her hand and staring intently into her eyes, trying to make her remember. I thought I saw a glimmer of something shining in her eyes, but when I looked again, it was gone. Janet pulled her hand out of his grasp. "Freak," she sneered. "What did you want, anyway?"  
"The headmistress wants to see you," I said, thinking quickly. Janet nodded and followed us, telling her friends she would see them in class. We passed by a broom cupboard as we were 'going to the headmistress's office.' I pulled the door open and we shoved Janet inside, going in with her, but leaving Emma, Mandy, and Marce outside. "We don't want to look too suspicious," I told them. "Head back to the common room; we'll be up in a few." Then I slammed the door shut and locked it tightly.  
"Bloody hell! What are you doing?! I'm getting out of here," Janet protested, trying to push open the closet.  
"Janet, we're your best friends, and Marcello," I said, "is your boyfriend, your soulmate, whatever you wanna call it!" Janet stared at me, then at the door, which Marcello had been behind a few seconds ago. She shook her head.  
"I have never seen you before. I think I would remember my own boyfriend and best friends."  
Emily sighed, then pulled out a small clear bottle, holding it up. "I thought we might need this," she commented, turning it until the label faced us. Verituserum, use with caution, it read.  
"Emily, you're a genius!" I shrieked. Janet's eyes started to look scared.  
"You'll never get me to drink that." She crossed her arms, trying to get an intimidating look on her face, and failing. Typical Janet.  
"Oh yes, you will!" With that, I pulled her down on the floor so she was sitting, held her hands behind her back, and sat firmly down myself. "Emily, take the Verituserum and force it down her throat," I commanded. Emily nodded and forced Janet's mouth open, putting a few drops in. Then she firmly held it closed until she swallowed.

"Who kidnapped you?" I asked. She turned to answer me.

"All I remember is that a boy named Scorpius Malfoy brought me to Hogwarts."

"Did anyone help him?" Emily asked. I let go of Janet's hands, as she had stopped struggling.

"Distressa, his sister, has been helping me around. I haven't seen much of either of them since she signed me up for classes."

"Did you see Scorpius, then suddenly find yourself here at Hogwarts, not remembering anything?" Emily asked suddenly, obviously struck with some sort of inspiration.

"Yeah. Exactly like that." Janet replied, nonplussed at Emily's question.

"Well..." Emily began, then trailed off, thinking hard.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **_Yay, my POV! This one's really short...but whatever. ;)_

**Emily  
**  
Lost in thought, I closed my eyes and leaned against the side of the broom closet. "I would say it's Imperio, but it's too foolproof," I finally said slowly. "She's able to interact with other people without it being obvious, which is supposed to be hard to do when you're under the Imperious curse." I spoke with conviction, because I had read the Harry Potter books many times over, and I had a good memory when I needed it. "Maybe it's someone else, drinking the Polyjuice Potion, and Janet's really being held hostage somewhere...Are you really Janet?" I asked Janet--or was she?  
"Yes," she replied monotonously.  
I sighed. "Well, there goes that idea, huh? Anyone else got one?"  
There was silence for a few moments before Kaliyan asked, "Janet, were you put under the Imperious spell?" Then she leaned over to me and whispered, "Might as well try, right?"  
Another pause ensued before Janet said, "I...I don't know." This time her voice wasn't monotonous at all, and reflected what I thought might be the un-influenced Janet, deep down underneath the spellwork. "Maybe." Then her voice hardened and went back to the very Slytherin-esque tone that it had had before. "Can I leave now? This broom closet is really small and cramped, you know."  
I could practically hear Kaliyan roll her eyes as she said, "You can leave when we figure out why you're acting so weird," she said.  
"Or maybe I could just leave right now," Janet replied icily, then quickly said, "Incarcerous," holding her wand out first at me, then at Kaliyan. Ropes shot out of it, wrapping us snugly; I couldn't move a muscle, and from Kaliyan's panicked look she couldn't, either.  
"Ta-ta!" called Janet from the doorway, which she had opened with Alohomora. Then she flicked her wand; the door slammed shut and I could just hear Janet's voice on the other end, whispering, "Colloportus," then something along the lines of, "Age: 136." There was a fairly long pause before the door opened again and Janet, her voice jubious, said, "Oops, almost forgot. Silencio," she said, pointing her wand at first Kaliyan, then me. "Well, good luck getting out of there!" She closed the door, and re-sealed it. Then I listened carefully as her footsteps grew farther and farther away.  
"Crap," Kaliyan mouthed.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **_This one's fairly long (for this story, at least), and in Mandy's POV. Woohoo. :P_

_

* * *

_

**Mandy  
**  
"Where are they?" I asked for the hundredth time, pacing around the common room. "They said they'd be back 'soon,' and that was ages ago! They've already missed all the rest of the classes..."  
Emma and Marcello both sighed, glancing meaningfully at the many other Gryffindors, mostly younger than us, who were all staring in my direction. Sydney was just staring out the window. "I don't know, Mandy, but I'm sure they're alright. Maybe they just decided to skip class, and are over at the Quidditch pitch having fun without us," Marcello said, sounding a little aggrieved--and I wasn't sure that it was at my friends' tardiness.  
I sighed, annoyed. "Well, fine, Marce. Just don't worry about our friends at all--" I began, but stopped talking immediately when Emma gasped, her eyes glazing over as she stared into the distance: she was seeing something.  
"They're tied up," she said, her voice sounding as far-off as her mind was, "still in the closet. Janet's made an age line, so no one under the age of 136 can get past it, and used Silencio--they can't call for help or anything." She licked her lips and blinked a few times. "I'm not sure whether there's a counter-charm for the line or not, but I'm sure we could find a way to get past..."  
Nodding, I grabbed Emma's and Marce's hands and ran down the hallway, past a very bewildered-looking Fat Lady, and down another hallway towards the broom closet, where I saw that there was indeed a thin golden line blocking the doorway. I thought briefly, then shot a glance at Emma. "Well? You're the psychic here," I told her. "How'm I going to get in there, Emma?"  
My friend just shrugged. "I don't know. All I see is you walking right up and kicking open the door."  
"Wow, real helpful," I said sarcastically, but decided to take her advice. "I am technically ageless," I muttered to myself, striding straight up to the door. Then, after a very brief pause, I whirled around and gave the door a nice, strong roundhouse kick. "Just like Chuck Norris does, just better," I huffed.  
There was only silence as I slowly stepped over the door and into the broom closet to see Kaliyan and Emily lying on the floor, their whole bodies wrapped up in ropes. I noticed that their mouths were moving rapidly, although no sound was coming out. It's times like these when I wish I was a witch, I thought to myself. Although I know a lot about Harry Potter, it doesn't do me much good if I can't cast any spells...

"Well? You're the Harry Potter freak here," Emma said teasingly from behind me.  
I just rolled my eyes. "Just because I love the series doesn't mean I can do magic," I reminded her. "I'm still a Mug--"  
"You're a what?" asked a girl, about 4th year I guessed, who was passing by in the hallway. "I thought you said you were from Beauxbatons or something." She stopped behind me, looking curious. I saw the blue lining in her robes and recognized her as a Ravenclaw. Perfect, I thought happily.  
"Nothing," I said hurriedly. "I'm just having a little trouble remembering the counterspell to silencio. A couple of my friends, erm, got jinxed as a joke and she needs me to help." Smiling in what I hoped was a convincing way, I turned to the girl and gestured to Kaliyan and Emily, who were nodding wildly, mouthing, "Help!!"  
The girl sighed and took out her wand, pointing to Kaliyan, then Emily, saying, "Finite Incantatem." Then she looked dubiously at me. "How could you forget the counterspell for all jinxes and spells?" she asked, but didn't wait for an answer before flouncing off, leaving us alone in the corridor once more.  
"God, Mandy," Kaliyan groaned. "That took long enough." She brushed off the ropes, which had loosened and fallen off when the Ravenclaw girl had undone silencio; it had apparently undone the rope jinx as well. "Why'd you wait so freaking long? We were in there for hours!"  
Emily rolled her eyes. "Well, we did say we'd be back. How could she have known that we'd get tied up? Anyway," she said, brushing her pants off and standing up, "we didn't find out much from Janet. All she told us was that she was probably jinxed by Scorpius Malfoy, and that Distressa Malfoy was her 'friend' and escort afterwards, and...well, I thought she was under the Imperious Curse, but it's too well-done. She's interacting normally with all the Slytherins, and...I don't know."  
"It's just too good," Kaliyan added, "so we're not sure what's wrong with her." She sighed heavily, then rubbed her eyes. "So basically we were in that closet all day for nothing," she muttered. "What did we miss in class, though? I hope nothing fun..."  
Emma piped up from behind me, "Nope, it was all really boring, especially Charms and Transfiguration. We had to watch everyone do magic while we couldn't, because, um, Madame Maxine told us we couldn't. That mean old headmistress."

I replied, "Defense Against the Dark Arts was the most boring, I think. The teacher made us pair up for reading. But, Sydney went to the bathroom first and when she got back, I had paired up with Marcello, and Emma had paired up with some Ravenclaw girl. So Syd had to pair up with the only guy left...he was shy and from Ravenclaw."  
"Did sparks fly?" Emily asked jokingly, a smirk adorning her face as she climbed out from the broom closet behind Kaliyan.  
Sydney, who was standing a little ways off, scowled and shouted, "Hey!"  
Marcello laughed quietly, then commented, "Actually, some sparks did fly," he said, "both literally and metaphorically. We were working on the charm for red and green sparks, so sparks were definitely flying--into people's faces, into people's clothes...all over the place."

"Nice humor, Marcello," I said. "We need to figure out who did this and how we get her to become normal again."  
Marcello frowned. "I know," he said, sounding concerned, "but we don't even know what's not normal about her, so how do we figure out how to undo it?"

"Yeah," Kaliyan agreed. "It's not as if we could just walk up to her and cast finite incantato or anything."

Emily's eyes widened. "Why couldn't we?"

"Because the Unforgivable Curses probably can't be undone with a common counterspell," I said dryly, rolling my eyes. "But I'm sure there's some sort of potion or something that could cure Janet..."

As we brainstormed, we walked towards the common room, so deep within our conversation that we didn't notice Distressa, who was hurrying along the corridor in the opposite direction, her nose deep in a book, her other books balanced precariously on her arm.

_Bam! _

We collided, and her books went flying across the hall. "Sorry!" we all said at once, without so much as checking to see who we ran into. Then we all scrambled to help her pick up her books, only realizing that it was Distressa when we handed the books to her. "Oh," Marcello said bluntly. "Hi, Distressa..."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: **_Kinda short-ish. Marcello's POV. Um...yeah. Can you tell I'm trying to post these as quickly as possible? No? Well, I am. And also running out of things to put in the author's note. Anyway, here ya go._

**Marcello**

"Um, hello," Distressa said slowly. "Thanks." She nodded towards her books, which were again balanced upon her arm, and smiled nervously at our group. "So, um, how do you like Hogwarts so far? Meeting up to your high standards?" She smiled sweetly, and for a moment I faltered; I'd forgotten why we were supposedly there, forgotten about Beauxbatons and Madame Maxine's no-magic decree. After a few seconds of hard thinking, though, I nodded in response, remembering.

"Yeah, it is," I answered. I was quickly echoed by everyone else's affirming mumbles as they engaged themselves in the conversation, and soon I stepped forward, a very flirty smile on my face. "Do you like short love affairs?" I asked Distressa, the beginning of an idea forming itself in my mind. She looked very confused as she answered, "Um, I'm not old enough to be having love affairs..." Feining disappointment, I continued to ask, "Well, do you date strangers?"'  
"No," Distressa answered firmly. "I don't--" That made me grin roguishly.

"Well, then allow me to introduce myself. I'm Marcello; you can call me Marce if you want." A small smile was all that Distressa allowed herself. "I'm sorry, Marce, I don't date. I'm too young. Besides, I just said I didn't date strangers, and I hardly know--"  
"We could get to know each other real fast," I said, my voice dipping low into the 'seductive' range, leaning in towards Distressa in a suggestive way. "Did you know that I went to college already?" I asked in a whisper.

Distressa shook her head, looking extremely frightened. "N-no. I didn't."  
"Yeah, well, I majored in English, and we were talking about the arrangement of the alphabet once in class."  
"Oh?" Distressa responded, wetting her cracked lips. I nodded.

"Yep," I said, "and if I rearranged the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together."  
"Really?" asked a voice from behind Distressa. "'Cause if I rearranged the alphabet, I'd put 'F' and 'U' together." I stood up to see a girl that looked like she'd be a 7th year, and she looked annoyed. "Don't sexually harrass the 1st years," she said firmly. "Which house are you in?" Shrugging, I said, "None of them. I'm visiting from Beauxbatons, so I don't have a house. But I guess if you'd dock points from anywhere, it'd be Slytherin..."  
"No, don't!" Distressa exclaimed. "He's lying; he's staying in the Gryffindor dorms, not Slytherin's." The 7th year girl sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, I'm Head Girl of Gryffindor," she said decisively, "and you've been a very bad boy, now haven't you..."  
"Marce."  
"Haven't you, Marce? Now go to my room." she said, then winked, her eyes twinkling, and flicked her wand at my hand; immediately, her name--Melissa Stoner--appeared on my hand, written in a neat script. "Just send me an owl whenever you need me, Marce. I'll be checking up on you." After a pause, she added, "By the way, 100 points to Gryffindor for good looks and good lines." Then she turned and strode down the hallway. I blinked.

"So she went from saying 'Eff you,' to that I'm good looking and have good pick-up lines," I concluded.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **_Alright! Chapter 15! Emma's POV! Kinda long! Yeah!!_

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**Emma  
**  
"Yeah." I replied to Marcello, from where I was standing right behind him. "That was really weird..." Then I walked forward and quickly whispered into Distressa's ear, "Sorry about Marce freaking you out; he's just desperate." Marcello heard me.  
"Hey! I am not desperate!" he exclaimed. Distressa just giggled.

"It's alright," she said, shrugging it off. "Some--most boys are like that." She grinned widely at me, then asked, "Would you like to come have lunch with me again? I could answer your questions about Hogwarts, and all..."  
Since she looked like such a lost puppy, and since that would get us closer to Janet, I agreed. Then Distressa, a happy look on her face, skipped down the hallway and towards the library; apparently she'd been carrying all those books there, to study for...what, I couldn't imagine. From what I remembered of Harry Potter, the 1st years didn't study much--no one except Hermione, of course.  
"Well, anyway, what about Emily and Kaliyan?" Mandy asked from behind me. I turned around to face her. "Janet would remember them from earlier, in the broom closet; what if she tells on us or something? What if she tips the Slytherins off?"  
Just then, two girls walked by, chatting aimlessly about their home lives. They looked to be in the 3rd year or so. "So, like, my sister sent me these, like, amazing dress robes in the mail," one girl, a blonde, said cheerily, flipping her hair around. "She's worn it before, though, and there's hair all over them, and they're kind of fraying at one edge, but I'll get someone to fix them for me at some point; I won't need them until later in the year."  
Acting on impulse--or maybe it was my clairvoyance speaking-- I whipped around to face them, smiling brightly. "Hey," I said, startling the second girl so much that she dropped her books. "I just happened to overhear that you needed someone to fix some dress robes for you?"  
Blondie nodded, and her friend, a pale, raven-haired girl, snorted from where she was stooping to pick up the fallen books. "Yeah," Blondie said, "but it might take a little while; I want the fraying fixed by sewing, not by spell...they're designer, you see, and if you fixed them by spell you might ruin the trademark stitching." She flipped her long, wavy hair once more, then raised an eyebrow. "Well?"  
Emily smiled genially as she said, "We'd all work on them together."  
"The longer it should take, the better," Kaliyan muttered under her breath, so that only our group could hear. "Besides, you can direct the wand to stitch it for you so that you get the so-called 'trademark stitching'..."  
Grinning, Blondie handed the dress robes, which she somehow had in her bag, to me--it was almost as if she was expecting us to ask.  
"Thanks," Kaliyan piped up. "We'll get them back to you as soon as we can."  
As soon as the girls, chattering once more, rounded the bend, Mandy frowned. "But that only makes one person--and what if the sister's, like, 18 years old? And what if one of the Professors stops you two? And what if--"  
"Shhh, Mandy, it's fine," Kaliyan said, rolling her eyes. "We'll be twin sisters, and maybe we can magically add freckles to Emily's and a scar to mine or something, either before or after we take the potion." She paused for a second, then added dubiously, "But where are we going to get a potion, anyway? Don't they take a month to make? And the ingredients are really rare..."  
Marcello walked up, then, and tapped her on the back, holding up two vials of mud-colored liquid. "I've got you covered."  
Startled, Kaliyan whisked around. After she saw that it was only Marce, she sighed and said, "Jeez, Marce, I didn't even notice that you'd left! But thanks a ton for the Polyjuice Potion...where'd you get it?"  
"Let's just say I've gotten pretty good at nicking things over the years," Marcello replied shortly. "I even took a couple extra vials, in case you need more time."  
Kaliyan grinned and stuck a hair into each vial, as well as a pinch of powder that Marcello had told her added freckles to the mixture, and we all watched as the potion turned a bright orange, bubbling a little at the top like Fanta. "God, I hope this tastes like it looks," Kaliyan said, grimacing, then added, "Cheers, Em!" Laughing, Emily clanked her vial against Kaliyan's, then they each took a deep breath, and tipped their containers into their mouths. Immediately, they seemed to melt, then re-form into the bodies of tall, tan girls with long dirty-blonde hair and hazel green eyes, one of whom had a scattering of freckles on both cheeks.  
They looked at each other, then at us, and immediately grinned identical grins, their teeth glinting in the flickering torchlight. "Maybe we can use magic, now that we're in a witch's body," the freckle-less one--Kaliyan--said hopefully.  
"But you don't have wands," I noted dryly, then watched as they both deflated. "Anyway," I continued, "you need names. Emily, you'll be Mackenzie, and Kaliyan will be Mikaela...and your last name will be Conway. Okay?"  
They both nodded, satifsfied with their new names, and we set off. They fit right in, and although they themselves looked younger, their 'donor' was probably taller than average, they looked like a 6th-year. "Okay," Sydney said suddenly, breaking through the silence, "so if anyone asks where they came from, we'll just tell them that they're from Beauxbatons, too, and they just got here late. Got it?" We all nodded. "Alrighty, here we go..."  
She pushed open the doors to the Great Hall, and we walked straight towards the Slytherin table, to very confused looks from most of the Gryffindors. When we reached the table, we sat down right across from Janet--and right next to Distressa--making ourselves at home. Distressa waved cheerily, Janet looked calculatingly at us, and the rest of the group just watched, impassive.  
"Who're those two?" Distressa asked. "I don't remember them."  
Emily was the first to answer. "I'm Mackenzie," she said.  
"And I'm Mikaela," Kaliyan finished smoothly. "We're from Beauxbatons, too, but our mother fell terribly ill a few weeks ago, so we've been staying with her."  
"She's better now," added Emily hastily, to the concerned looks on some of the kinder Slytherins' faces, "still ill, but much better. She simply insisted that we fulfill our promises to visit Hogwarts, though, so here we are." She sighed dramatically, then dug into the roast beef that had just appeared on her plate. Kaliyan did the same, and I could see their glances at each other to make sure they were behaving in similar manners, although they shouldn't have worried; they were doing very well.  
Distressa nodded understandingly. "That's too bad about your mum," she said sympathetically, "but I'm glad you could come to Hogwarts after all."  
Emily nodded. "Thanks," she said.  
"We're glad we could come, too," Kaliyan added.  
A boy that was sitting next to Janet suddenly piped up with, "I wish I had a twin. It looks so much fun to finish each other's sentences, and be look-alikes and all. It'd be really sweet to have a braniac twin, too, so that we could switch places every once in a while and balance each other's grades out."  
The 'twins' grinned at each other, then turned to the boy. "It is pretty fun..."  
"...to finish each other's sentences."  
"And we're both braniacs..."  
"...so there's no need for switching places."  
"But besides that, looking alike..."  
"...is a ton of fun!"  
Janet, who had previously been watching on boredly, turned to the girl on the other side of her and started talking loudly about Transfiguration class, and how some Hufflepuff girl had completely screwed up her spell and made her newt turn into a flock of birds, which then attacked the whole class, causing them to be driven out and forced--she said this very dramatically--to use the remaineder of class to clean up the feathers from the room.  
Emily rolled her eyes. "As interesting as your conversation is..." she started, looking to Kaliyan to finish it.  
Picking up quickly, Kaliyan continued, "...we don't really want to hear all about your class."  
"Thanks for sharing, though," Mandy added from where she was sitting on the other side of the two of them. "It really was fascinating, Janet, really it was, but maybe you could try not to drown out our conversations, since it's kind of rude to do that..."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **_Sydney's POV, 1,175 words (including "Sydney" and not including the author's note), which isn't really that long...but kind of long...but not really. Enjoy the story. :D_

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**Sydney  
**  
While Mandy was ranting about Janet's being brainwashed, and Janet was ignoring her, I scooted my plate over nearer to Distressa. "Sorry about Mandy," I said, winking and taking a sip of my water. "She can be a little weird sometimes. All the time." Distressa smiled hesitantly, and I grinned back at her. "Anyway, do you want to, um, have a Quiddich match with us after dinner? Me, Emma, Mandy, K--Mikaela, Mackenzie, and you? That'd make 3-on-3, and we could just play without a Seeker."  
Distressa chewed her lip. "Well, I've got a lot of homework..." she mumbled.  
"We can help with that," Kaliyan interjected.  
Emily nodded eagerly, her blonde hair falling in her face a little. "It'd be no problem," she said.  
"First-year homework is really easy," Kaliyan added.  
"Especially for us 6th-years."  
"It's like doing 1st year homework in normal school."  
"Just when you're in your 5th or 6th year."  
"And--"  
I rolled my eyes. "We get it, M&M," I said, making up a nickname on the spot.  
Distressa frowned. "Promise you'll do it well?"  
"No problem," Emily replied.  
Kaliyan nodded her assent. "I'm great at forging handwriting, too."  
"Both of us are."  
Sighing, Distressa answered, "Okay. Quidditch is a lot more fun than essays, anyway." She pulled out her books and a few scrolls of parchment, setting them on the table; without any of us noticing, everyone else had left, and the table was cleared. "I've got a half-scroll for Defense Against the Dark Arts, on werewolves, and a half-scroll for Charms explaining at least 3 different uses of Aguamenti."  
Emily grinned. "I'll do the one on werewolves," she said. "I got a perfect mark on that one when it was assigned at our school."  
"And I'll do the Aguamenti one," Kaliyan said, "since I'm better at Charms than E--Mackenzie is."  
"Okay!" Distressa said cheerily, only too happy to be having them do her homework for her.

Only about 20 minutes later, both essays--carefully checked by Distressa for quality of both the contents and the forging--were finished and in the younger girl's bag, and the 6 of us were heading down to the locker rooms to change.  
After we'd changed into some of the school's spare Quiddich robes, we hiked up to the pitch. "Okay," Marcello was saying; since he'd declined the choice to play, he'd assumed the position of scorekeeper and team-maker, "so the twins and Emma on one team; and Mandy, Sydney, and Distressa on the other sound OK? Mackenzie and Distressa'd play Chasers, Mikaela and Sydney'll be Beaters, and Mandy and Emma will be the Keepers. Since it's a 3-on-3 game, we won't have Seekers."  
Emily grinned. "That sounds awesome; I love playing Chaser."  
"And I love playing Beater," Kaliyan added.  
Distressa, Emma, and I all nodded along with their loving of positions. Soon, we were at the Quiddich pitch, and all of us grabbed school brooms--mainly Cleansweeps and Comets--heading onto the field, brooms in hand.  
"Ready, set....go!" Marcello shouted, and we all kicked off awkwardly. Kaliyan and Mandy found their balance the fastest, since they weren't human, followed by Emily, Distressa, me, and finally Emma. We decided on sides of the field for our teams, and were soon rocketing around, the Quaffles and Bludgers flying left and right.  
It soon became clear why Emily, aka Mackenzie, enjoyed playing Chaser: because she got to fly quickly, and even though she had a slow, old-fashioned broom, she was flying through the air faster than a Firebolt probably could have gone, all thanks to her power over the wind. Kaliyan was also flying quickly, though not quite as quickly; she was apparently using her telekinesis to push her broom forward, which would take a ton of mental strength.  
"Wow," Distressa said as she stole a Quaffle from Emily, who performed a pin-tight 180-degree turn in pursuit, "you're a really good flier. So is your sister...how do you get these old brooms to go so fast?"  
Emily shrugged, meanwhile whacking the large red ball from Distressa's hands and rocketing in the other direction. "I guess we're just...unique," she yelled over her shoulder at the younger girl. Then she shook her head, laughing a little, and hurled the Quaffle straight at Mandy, who just barely managed to knock it to the side. "Dang."  
I tossed a Bludger into the air, whacking it--hard--with my bat and watching as it went flying at Emily, then cursing under my breath when it missed by only inches. I flew after it--literally--and hit it once more towards Emily, who was getting awfully close to the goals again. This time, however, I hit her, and she went veering off course, dropping the Quaffle right into Distressa's outstretched hands.  
Distressa flew in a very straight line towards Emma, faking to the left and then whipping the large ball into the right-hand goal. Emma was nowhere near the goal, as she'd fallen for the fake-out. "Yes!" Distressa shouted, grinning and doing a victory dance on her broom. She was so wrapped up in her dance, however, that she didn't see the Quaffle being passed to her from me and it caught her right in the ribs, knocking the breath out of her.  
"Oh my god!" I yelled. "I'm so sorry!" Maneuvering my broom so that I came alongside her, I helped her steer her broom to the ground, where she stayed mounted, but kept her feet touching the ground so that she wouldn't injure herself if she fell off. "I'm so sorry..." I kept mumbling, over and over. "I'm so, _so_ sorry, Distressa. I thought you were looking, so I passed the Quaffle, and...oh, I'm just _so _sorry. If you need anything..."  
Distressa shook her head. "It's fine," she gasped. "I'll be...fine. Just...keep playing. I...can...still fly, I...think." Then she feebly kicked off the ground, still gasping for breath and clutching her side. She didn't go very far, though, simply drifting about 2 feet higher, and floating there.  
I rolled my eyes. "Oh, no, you can't," I said. "You can hardly push off the ground." I checked my watch, then added, "Besides, it's getting to be almost time to head back to the dormatories, and we should probably get going early, just in case...we'll go into the lockers right now and get changed back into our Muggle clothes, then you can either go to the hospital wing or your dorm, depending on how bad it is."  
"Thanks," Distressa mumbled, pushing her broom as if trying to get back on the ground.  
Smiling, I pulled it the rest of the way. "No problem." Then I turned to the field and yelled, "Hey, guys! It's getting late, and Distressa just got hit by a pass from her own teammate--me--so we're going to head in...unless you want to play 2-on-2, but that's usually not nearly as fun."  
Everyone else angled their brooms downwards, and in no time they had all landed and we were heading to the locker rooms to change.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **_Um. Yeah. Mandy's POV. Pretty dramatic. Dun dun dun duuuuuuuuuun. Sort of. ;P Enjoy._

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**Mandy**

When we finally reached the locker rooms, I entered the girls' one and pulled off my Quidditch robes and hung them in the 'spare' closet, along with the other protective gear, closing the door right as Distressa came up behind me to put away her own things. "Hey, Distressa," I said, aiming for a genial tone of voice. _This is the big moment, _I thought to myself. _Don't screw it up, or we'll never be able to save Janet. _"So, is it true that your brother, Scorpius, um...kidnapped Janet?"  
Distressa opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. This repeated several times, until she finally settled with, "You know about that?" I nodded. "How do you know about that?" She frowned, then continued, "I wasn't in on that, I promise, Amanda. Scorpius is...skilled with a wand, and he threatened me if I didn't help...but it wasn't me, I swear on my life!"  
Nodding again, I took the plunge without thinking about it, "You know what your brothers are doing is wrong, right?"  
The younger girl bit her lip. "Well, yes, I know that, but they--"  
"You could get all of your friends to help you stand up against them, if you wanted."  
She shook her head. "All my friends are afraid of my brothers."  
"We...we could be your friends. We could back you up, and we're...um..." I couldn't do it. I just couldn't tell this girl, who might be lying and just take the information straight to her brothers, about us. She already had enough dirt--that we knew about Janet's kidnapping, for instance--to pass on, if that was her motive.  
Distressa gulped. "I appreciate that, but--"  
"You don't have to be such a limp noodle, Distressa. Stand up for yourself."  
Then, suddenly, Distressa fell silent, staring intently at the floor. "How did you know?" she whispered, then fell silent once more. After a good long minute or so, she said, in an almost-whisper, "You're right. I've told myself that exact thing, a ton of times, and even asked my friends to help me against Scorpius, but we're a bunch of 1st-years, what're we supposed to do?" She sighed. "But now I've got you guys, and...you'll help me, won't you?"  
"Of course," came two voices--although it sounded like only one--from behind me, as Emily and Kaliyan walked up to hang their things in the closet. "I take it that Mandy told you that we knew?" asked Kaliyan; Distressa nodded. "Well, then, we're off to find your brother." Then 'her' face lit up as she thought of something. She leaned over and whispered something in Distressa's ear; the younger girl's eyes brightened. "...then we'll all come," continued Kaliyan as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't just whispered something in Distressa's ear, "and do our things--did you tell her about...the other thing, Mandy?"  
I shook my head. "I was...I couldn't do it." She nodded like the understood my hidden message.  
Then Emily said, "Oh, whatever. She'll see later; if she is...you know, at least this way...anyway, we'll all come and do our things, and you, Distressa, can switch sides halfway through, and your brother will be overwhelmed. Then we can get an antidote for Janet, get you some respect from that idiot, Scorpius, and all will be well in the world. Does that sound like a plan to you?"  
Kaliyan, Distressa, and I nodded. "Wait, what is Scorpius using Janet for anyway?" Kaliyan wondered.  
Distressa looked around warily, then whispered to us. "He's trying to...you know, _kill_ Harry Potter." We just stared at her, her.  
"Then, we really have to stop Scorpius. How about we meet you at Harry Potter's house, where I'm assuming he's headed?" I guessed. Everyone murmured their assent, then we exited the locker rooms and joined the rest of our group, quickly explaining the plan, in whole, to them.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **_Another look inside Distressa's head. Could she be planning something devious? Uh-oh...what side is she REALLY on?_

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**Distressa**

Muttering under my breath, I sprinted directly to the Slytherin common room, hoping that my brother was there. Lucky me, he was, and I walked up to him, a very worried look on my face. "Scorpius?" I requested timidly.  
"What do you want, you little prick?" he asked from behind a copy of the Daily Prophet. "I'm busy."  
I gulped. "There's...well, you know those people who said they were from Beauxbatons?"  
Scorpius rolled his eyes and looked over his paper. "The oiks who you sat with at lunch today, you mean?" he asked snidely. "You're getting awful chummy with them, considering they're staying in Slytherin. What'd you do, tell them about the plan?" A few girls that were practically hanging off of him giggled appreciatively, and my face became hot both with embarrassment and anger.  
"No, of course I didn't tell them!" I exclaimed. "They knew already. Not the whole thing, of course, but they knew that you kidnapped Janet for some reason, and that you've got her under a similar spell to Imperious, and they're sure to find out more, too! A couple of them are coming to fight you, too, and they're 6th years. I just wanted to warn you about them, since if I didn't you'd probably kill me."  
Scorpius rolled his eyes and brought his paper back up. "I swear sometimes you're off your face," he said. "They can't use magic, remember? Madame what's-her-face said so, and they wouldn't dare go against her. Besides...why are you shaking your head at me?!"  
"B-because, they wouldn't tell me how, but th-they said they were s-special. I think th-they have some sort of powers beyond wand-magic or something."  
Rolling his eyes, Scorpius said, "Cut the cack, Distressa, there's no such thing. Unless they were all werewolves, but tonight's not a full moon, so we're safe even if they are. Now leave me _alone_. As I've said, I'm busy."  
"Don't get mad at me when they come to kill you then," I muttered darkly, then headed out of the common room and down the hallway, wand in hand. If Scorpius wasn't going to be ready for the fight, at least I would be. And I was sure that I'd chosen the winning side.

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"Janet." I prodded her arm, trying to wake her up. "It's time." Her eyes fluttered open and she quickly absorbed what I was saying. Janet stood up, she had prepared for this last night. She already had clothes on, ready to go destroy Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, which was what she thought we were doing. Little did she know that we were actually heading for a battle concerning her.  
Janet and I rushed down from the girls' dormitories, to the Slytherin common room, where Scorpius and Xavier stood, waiting. "Let's go," the usually mute Xavier hissed in excitement. With Scorpius as our leader, we entered the silent corridors, sleeping paintings lining the walls.  
"_Lumos_," Scorpius whispered. A small light appeared at the end of his wand, revealing our way. All of us tiptoed through the halls, hiding whenever we heard a teacher patrolling the school. We couldn't afford to get caught; it would be the end of everything.  
When we finally made it out of the school, Scorpius gave me another command. "Go down to the Quidditch pitch, quickly, and steal 4 brooms. We'll be gone before they will know." I nodded and sprinted down to the huge, grassy field with hoops at each end. I ran to the broom closet and took out, as promised, 4 Cleansweeps. I smiled to myself when I saw that there were still 10 brooms left; we would have a dramatic fight, then, as Mandy, Emma, Mikaela, Sydney, Mackenzie, and Marcello would all be able to pursue us. _Granting that they get there fast enough to stop Scorpius, _I thought.  
Not wanting to waste any more time, I raced back to find Xavier, watching to make sure no one found us. Scorpius was tapping his foot impatiently and reached a hand out for a broom. I handed them out to my brothers and Janet, then took a firmer grip on my own. The Cleansweeps weren't the fastest, but they would be enough to get away from Hogwarts. Xavier muttered the Disillusionment Charm under his breath, pointing his wand at each of us in turn, including himself, and we mounted our brooms, zooming off into the night. I looked back, thinking about the challenge ahead; it was especially challenging for me...the double agent.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **_Off to the fight!_

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**Marcello**

I swung open the locker door, checking to make sure that the coast was clear. Then I waved to my friends with my free hand--the other one was holding a Comet broomstick--and crept towards the doorway, where I repeated the motions: check, wave, creep...check, wave, creep. Then, when all of my friends had joined me outside, we kicked off from the ground and began shooting towards the far-off pinpricks of darkness. There were 4, in formation, and they were headed right towards Harry Potter's house, as Distressa had promised. We'd agreed last night not to trust her completely, but still to fight; what difference would an 11-year-old girl make, anyway?  
The broomsticks were slow, but we'd gotten the newer versions--whether on purpose or accidentally, I wasn't sure--so we had a slight advantage, so we would arrive almost at the same time as the Malfoys-and-Janet would. From there, the plan was to land, assess the situation, and immediately act however it required us to, whether that be fight immediately, or sneak around then fight, or just leave.  
"We're nearly there," I heard someone whisper from behind me; it sounded like Mandy.  
The wind was whipping my brown hair straight back, buffeting us around a little, but not too much--it was what I imagined would be considered perfect flying weather, had I flown any earlier than the day before. And as we tilted downwards for a landing, a few blocks down from the house so that we wouldn't be seen, I noticed that the wind was pretty fast down here as well, although it had been quite calm before we'd left.  
I smiled slightly at Emily. "You're excited," I said shortly; it wasn't a question, but a statement.  
She nodded, then asked sarcastically, "How on earth could you tell?" Laughing quietly and stacking her broom on top of the pile we were compiling in a nearby alleyway, she took a deep breath, then held her right hand rigid at her side, tightening the muscles and making her "wind sign" with her fingers; thumb slightly bent, index and middle fingers straight, ring finger half-bent, and pinkie finger all the way down. The wind slowed down markedly, and she wiggled her eyebrows. "Wasn't paying attention...was it messing with anyone's flight? 'Cause if it was, I'm really sorry."  
"No," I replied, "it was fine." Then Kaliyan grinned and added, "Cool that you still have your powers in that form. I wonder if I can morph from here..." Emily shrugged.

"I hope so, or we might be screwed." After a few seconds, she added, "At least we know you can use your telekinetic powers," while amusedly glancing at a few candy wrappers, which were quivering about 5 inches above the ground. As soon as she commented, they dropped to the ground.  
"Okay, so I'm excited too," Kaliyan said, shrugging. "Anyway, let's go."  
The rest of our group were waiting at the corner, looking tense and nervous, but at the same time excited; we'd be getting Janet back soon! We set off into the night, and in only a minute or so had reached Harry Potter's house; Emily had apparently gained some muscles in her form-change. _Who am I kidding? _I asked myself. _She could have been anyone and gained muscle.  
_As soon as we stepped onto the yard, I felt an electric charge go up my body, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight. The air seemed to be made of pure energy, and I could tell right away that there was something amiss.  
Suddenly there was a high-pitched scream from the house. "_That's _not Harry," Emily quipped, already running towards the house. The rest of us followed suit, hopping over the already-knocked-down door and down the hallway. The girls were amazed at the thought of being in Harry Potter's house, and frightened_--There are people in this house who might be killers_--and excited--_I can't believe I'm about to be in another fight_--at the same time.  
Mandy led the way up the stairs and down another hallway, before we finally reached the room from which screams were still coming from. We opened the door, which was half hanging off its hinges, to see Scorpius, Xavier, and--to our surprise--Distressa, pointing their wands at the very frightened-looking Harry and Ginny who were holding their wands out to the teenagers. I heard a creaking from behind me, like footsteps, as a baffled duo of boys were walking down the hallway, followed at a distance by a small redheaded girl.  
"Hey," I whispered. "Stay really quiet, we don't want to be noticed--" Suddenly someone tapped me on the back, and I heard groans from my friends. "Too late," said Janet, not sounding at all like herself.  
Kaliyan had a very angry look on her face, but it lasted for a long while and nothing happened. Nothing at all happened; she stayed human. Cursing under my breath, I rushed into the fight that was unraveling in front of me. My friends had gotten up from where they must have fell as a result of a hex of some sort, and were now matched against various opponents; the whole of the Slytherin house was outside, and seemed to have decided to join us.  
Mentally making a checklist of my friends seemed like a good idea, so I started in on that, working as quickly as possible. I could clearly see Emily, shrouded in a tornado of epic proportions and throwing punch after punch at the two Slytherin boys in front of her, whose wands were lying about 10 feet away; they were forced to fight hand-to-hand. I immediately noticed that wizards aren't good at that sort of thing when I looked over at Mandy, who had already knocked out 3 people and was in the process of punching a 4th. Then I looked over at Emma, who was holding her own against a 15-year-old boy who was almost twice her height. Kaliyan flew a lamp into the boy's face, knocking him unconscious. Then I turned to the other side of the room where the children a battled their way through the crowd and joined their parents. Harry and Ginny didn't seem to happy about this, but I had no doubts. Each of the children had seemed to have inherited their parents' talents.  
Spinning back around, I punched a tall Slytherin girl lightly, still making her fall to the ground. Emma had moved onto a smaller boy, probably 3rd or 4th year, giving him a few good punches to the nose. I decided that she was pretty well off and moved on to another kid. I caught Sydney's eye as she roundhouse-kicked a boy in the...um...sensitive area. I winced as he keeled over, moaning. Sydney was just trying to get by with luck, and was doing fairly well from what I could see; she'd also given a few people bloody noses.  
After taking a deep breath, I launched into a hand-to-hand fight with a black-haired girl who looked to be in the 7th year--she sneered when she saw me approaching, but I knew that she was less than a match for me, so I just grinned. I just hoped we would be able to hold out against a whole House until Kaliyan could shift into a wolf. We really needed it.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **_Okay, so since these POVs are so short, I combined 2 of them into one chapter. Because otherwise it'd be a short chapter, and we don't want that. Also, I'm the first POV. So yay, you get to read about me and my awesome wind powers. OH YEAH. ROCK ON. Just kidding. There you go._

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**Emily**

The tornado around me was going so strong that no one wanted to fight me, so I feigned exhaustion and doubled over, clutching my gut as I slowed the wind down to a crawl around me. It only took a few seconds, though, before a burly 5th-year boy stepped in front of me and slapped me across the cheek before I could get up. This wasn't much, though, and I abruptly stood and slapped him the same way, just harder.  
Looking surprised, he took up a fighting stance and balanced himself, waiting only a split-second before his leg shot out and hit me right in the shin. _Thank god for those endless years of soccer, _I thought as I simply slapped it a little; the stinging dulled the throbbing pain for long enough for me to arise and punch him in the shoulder. I felt something pop, and the boy staggered off, paling almost instantly to a sickly shade of paper-white.  
Another boy came up to take his place, though, and this one was older than me. I sighed and made my 'wind sign,' not surprised in the slightest when the wind shaped itself to my will and formed a 2-inch aura-like thing around me. I could feel it rushing around, and knew that it was going quickly, but I also knew that the boy couldn't sense a difference...not until he tried to land a punch on me, that is. I went to elbow him in the gut, but this boy was smarter than the last couple were, and he caught my arm, twisting it over my head and behind my back.  
I winced, but didn't let my pain show any more than that. Then I stomped, hard, on his foot, allowing myself a small smile when I heard him wheeze in pain. Then I made a wind sign with my other hand, which was trapped behind my back, and the tornado started. I could see that he was beginning to lose his balance a little, so I took a deep breath, relaxed my whole body, and forced almost half of my energy into making a 1-foot-thick rush of wind go across the floor of the entire room, and focused a little bit more of my energy into making it avoid my friends, wherever they were.  
Then, letting the breath out in one quick _whoosh_, I felt it tickling my ankles a little bit, and felt the boy behind me tense, then jump into the air, just a little too early. He landed inside the rush of air and stumbled backwards a little, almost dislocating my shoulder. But he righted himself quickly and stood up straight, and suddenly I felt a wand-tip on my neck. "'Don't harm them,'" he whispered, as if quoting someone. "'Don't harm them, just freeze them,' said Scorpius, 'because they're not in this. Just the Potters,' he said...Well, here goes nothing. _Impedimenta_."  
Suddenly my whole body stiffened, and I felt his hand straightening out my own; he'd felt me move it when the wind picked up. He then repositioned my arm to hang stiffly by my side, and ran to help the big group that was attacking Harry and Ginny. They were fighting back with all their might, wands out and spells shooting everywhere. I just stood there watching the fight unfold before me, completely helpless and immobile, until I saw a white-blonde head bob out from the fight. Distressa saw that I had been jinxed frozen, and seemed to decide that it was time to switch sides.

"_Finite_," she said, holding her wand to me.

"Thanks." I said, running to return to the fight. There were now jets of light flying around the room at different angles, and once I focused, in was obvious that Harry and Ginny were trying to fight back the multiple Slytherin children without harming them. It wasn't working too well. I glanced at the whole fight. We were _very_ outmatched. We wouldn't, _couldn't_ win. Just as a large girl came up from behind me and kicked my shin, I fell a warmth run down me as I felt myself melting and going back to my original appearance and shrank back to my normal size. I looked around for Kaliyan as I worked up another storm, blowing the girl to the ground. But before I could spot her, a giant brown wolf rose above the crowd.

**Kaliyan  
**  
I just finished punching a 5th year boy out cold, when I felt a heat shiver through my whole body. Quickly glancing in a wardrobe mirror, I yelled excitedly. The Polyjuice Potion had worn off! Smirking at another Slytherin approaching me, I let my anger flow through my veins.  
My clothes exploded off my body as I grew, revealing chocolate-brown fur. My knees reversed, making me fall onto all fours. My nose and mouth elongated into a snout, full of huge, sharp canines. I grew a tail, and my ears were now points on the top of my head. I growled loudly, making everyone stop for a second to stare in awe. I put on a wolfy grin, knowing full well how nightmarish I looked, and how frightening it would be to my opponents.  
There were some screams and most of the Slytherins tried to back out the doors or hide in closets to escape the giant beast that was me. "No!" Scorpius exclaimed, a furious look on his face aimed at me. "Keep fighting! It's just an illusion; it's not a full moon!" Taking the distraction, Harry pointed his wand at Xavier.  
"_Impedimenta_," he shouted. Xavier froze in place, falling to the ground. Scorpius turned around, alternately yelling spells and cursing under his breath. Harry and Ginny protected themselves as some older kids came out of their hiding places, including Janet. Emily, Mandy, Emma, Sydney, and Marcello started fighting again.  
Snarling, I pounced on a 7th year. He squealed like a little girl as I pinned him down to the ground. Right when I was about to knock his head aside, he fainted. _That works_, I thought, shrugging and moving on to the next person. As a wolf, I was practically invincible. I nimbly dodged a couple spells and sent an ironing board flying towards the huge group surrounding the Potters, whacking many down like bowling pins. Ginny cast a grateful look at me, then concentrated back on the people assailing her family.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: **_Another two-fer. Enjoyeth._

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**Mandy**

Seeing Janet, I whispered to Kaliyan, "Cover me_._" I came up behind Janet and swiftly grabbed her arms, pulling her so that she fell. Kaliyan followed me, clearing a path easily. "How am I going to keep her down _and_ protect myself?" I wondered as Janet fought with me. The wolf just shook her head and laid down across Janet, horizontally, so that only her shoulders & up were showing. Thankfully, Kali wasn't resting all her weight so that she would squish Janet like a small bug.

Nobody would bother them, since no one wanted to approach the werewolf-that-wasn't-an-illusion. Kali still batted some Slytherins over with her paw, though, striking them comatose. Grinning at the funny sight, I ran as fast as I could at a tall boy trying to kill Lily. Once I unarmed him, I knocked him on the head. He immediately crumpled to the ground, still breathing, but dead to the world.  
Following my lead, Sydney came over to the quickly dwindling group surrounding Harry, Ginny, Albus, James, and Lily. She started punching the person closest to her. When they tried to fight back, she teleported behind them and continued what she was doing before. Then, Emma pursued Syd and joined her, covering her back.  
I did an about-face, kicking an older girl in the head slightly. After she collapsed, I went on to a Slytherin prefect that was being cocky, kicking his butt. As I whirled like an angry tornado, I saw Marcello taking on a whole group of kids, and succeeding. Emily was high up in the air, swirling things around and hitting people. The numbers were dwindling, and the piles of knocked out/jinxed/hexed Slytherins were filling the room. I noticed after knocking out a boy about my age that we were finally down to the two who started the mess: Scorpius, who hadn't been knocked out yet, and Xavier, who'd recovered from the earlier blow to his head and was fighting once more.  
They were dueling with Harry and Ginny, and somehow holding their own. I watched as Distressa aimed her wand at Scorpius, who lowered his and turned to her. Apparently he hadn't noticed her switch until there was no one left but them. He had the most shocked look on his face, his own sister holding him at wandpoint. As Xavier continued to battle Ginny, now unparalyzed thanks to a fellow student, Distressa got him from behind with some sort of jinx, that made him lay down on the floor like he was oblivious to the fact that he was in a battle, and fell asleep. She then returned her focus to Scorpius. Everyone just stood, silent.

**Distressa**

I held my wand to my own brother's neck. "Distressa, please. Don't do this," Scorpius begged. I replied with an angry tone, although my wand hand shook.

"Oh, so now _you_ are appealing to me. No more bossing me around, huh?" Mandy laid a caring hand on my other arm, and I could feel warmth run through me, even though I could feel the ice that was her hand though my robes. I breathed in deeply, staring with hard eyes at the person who I'd lived with, who had directed me all my life to do what he thought was the right thing. _Not anymore_, I thought to myself. "Scorpius, give Janet the anti-potion," I commanded. He sneered at me.  
"Never." He retorted, and Sydney stepped forward.  
"Oh, really? You want me to get the giant wolf over here to _make_ you?" Sydney grinned at Scorpius as his eyes grew wide. The monster who _was_ Mikaela, now a girl I did not know the name of, made a deep throaty chuckling noise. Under her, Janet had stopped trying to escape, knowing that the plan had come crashing down. "Well?" Sydney demanded.  
"Okay, okay. Just make the beast get off of Janet and I'll call her over. She will only follow _my_ instructions." 'Mikaela' heard his words and stood up, moving to sit next to Amanda. "Janet, come here. You're thirsty, aren't you?" Scorpius spoke.  
"Yeah, actually. I'm really, really thirsty," Janet responded. Scorpius extracted a small vial from his pocket.  
"Here, I brought you some pumpkin juice." He handed the small glass bottle to Janet.  
"Is that the...?" 'Mackenzie' asked, trailing off as Scorpius nodded quickly. Janet uncorked the flask and threw its contents into her mouth. She coughed and I saw a little bit of more life come back into her eyes. She blinked quickly and glanced around at everyone.  
"Where am I? Wait, Sydney?!" Syd grinned and gave her a shrug. They hugged, smiling, until Janet saw Scorpius and narrowed her eyes. "_What_ did you do to me? I remember seeing your face." Everyone else echoed her question. Scorpius sighed and said, "I put her under _Affectira_."  
"What's _Affectira_?" Emma asked. "I've never heard of it."

"It's new," said Scorpius. "From this last summer holiday, I think. It's one step better than _Imperio_. I thought you lot would know. I heard that the bloke who invented it was from France."  
"We've been out of touch with France and our families for so long we wouldn't have heard," 'Mackenzie' said quickly. "It took a lot longer to get here by Muggle transportation than you'd think." Everyone just stood awkwardly not knowing what to do. Janet was the only one who really seemed to feel like moving. She had by now screamed the name of and hugged most of her friends. Just then I heard her scream louder than ever, "Marce!" and run towards Marcello.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **_This one's short, because the next POV is long-ish and I stuck it with another short one and that'd be just really long, which wouldn't go with the trend of really short chapters in this story. Almost there!!_

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**Janet**

As I ran towards Marce, he smiled a beautiful smile and swept me up in his arms. He kissed me so tenderly, but full of passion. "Marce, what happened? Why are we all here?" I looked at all my friends gathered around me. It felt like I hadn't seen them in months, maybe years. "Why is Kaliyan a wolf?" I turned and saw some movement on a bed in the middle of the huge room we were in. I screamed. "Oh my gosh! Is that...is that the Potter family?!" They all smiled and came over, shaking my hand.  
"Very nice to meet you all. What are your names anyway?" Ginny asked.

_"_Distressa." The white-blonde girl shook with the hand that wasn't still keeping Scorpius in place.  
"Janet. Nice to meet you, too."  
"Sydney."  
"I'm Emma."  
"Hi, my name's Amanda."  
"Emily." Harry grinned at all of us and spread his arms wide.  
"I'm pretty sure you know who we are. You have read the books by our great friend, J.K. Rowling, am I correct?" We nodded. Harry and Ginny's youngest prodded her dad. "Yes, Lily?"  
"Who's the giant wolf? And why _is_ there a wolf? It's not a full moon! Anyway, normal werewolves aren't that big, I think...and don't they act unusual, too, when they're in their lupine forms?" Lily was 12 and liked to seem very knowledgeable, now that she was a 2nd year.  
"Oh, that's Kaliyan," Emma replied. "She's not really a werewolf, but a shapeshifter."  
"Well, why doesn't she change back?" James smirked.  
"Um...she doesn't exactly have any _clothes_ because I'm guessing she didn't want to undress in a room full of people," Emily said, holding up a remnant of Kaliyan's shirt. James and Albus started snickering, being immature like a lot of boys who are 14 and 15.  
_ "_I think I can help with that." Ginny smiled and headed over to a huge walk-in closet, pulling out a black shirt with 'Weird Sisters' written on it and some shorts.

She held them up to Kaliyan and she took them in her mouth. "You can go change in there," Ginny said, gesturing at the closet. Kaliyan dipped her head in a nod, walked carefully, weaving between all the petrified bodies and going into the closet. Harry shut the doors behind her.  
"Okay, back to questions," I insisted. "First, what happened?"


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: **_A fairly long chapter for this story, and the last one!! Hope you enjoyed the story, and thanks for reading! :)_

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**Emma**

Marcello, Mandy, Emily, Sydney, and I all told Janet the story, chipping in in places that others couldn't exactly remember. Kaliyan came out in the middle and started helping, too. Distressa told her side and all about the plan. When they were finished, our audience had very wide eyes. The only thing we didn't tell about was our lies to Distressa and Scorpius.

"Thank you so much for helping us," Ginny said. "I don't think we would've made it without your help."

"I just have one more question," Harry said. "How did you get all of these kids here?"

"By portkey." Distressa said. "By the way, my arm's really starting to hurt. _Incarcerous!_" Long ropes flew out from the tip of her wand, and tied themselves around Scorpius. "We made the portkey to take us all from the common room to the street outside your house, just in case you had some kind of protection around your house. Then we just, you know..." She trailed off.

"Wow." Harry was pretty amazed at how well thought-out this plan was. "You really didn't miss anything did you?"

"I suppose you'll all be needing to get back home, won't you?" Ginny asked. "We can ask Professor Longbottom if he would let us take everyone back to Hogwarts through his office by Floo powder?"

"Sounds great. I send him an owl." Harry said, heading out the door. Ginny turned to her children, who had all been listening to the story as well.

"You three go pack up your trunks; you can go back tonight as well if you like." They then cheerfully ran back down the hallway to get packed.  
"Um," Kaliyan intervened, "that's good for all the Slytherins, but we aren't going back to Hogwarts. We would like to go to the airport, actually. We're taking Muggle transportation to another school. We've been here long enough."

"If that's what you've decided. We'll be happy to give you transportation there," Ginny said, and walked out with a smile.

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We all got into the black car outside the Potter house. It had been enlarged on the inside so that the back seat was the size of a large park bench and we all fit inside comfortably. Distressa had insisted on coming with us to the airport, before returning to Hogwarts.  
"Well," she said uncertainly as we stood at the gate, "this is goodbye, I guess. Thanks for helping me, you know..."  
"Realize that your brothers were idiots?" I supplied with a half-smile. "You're welcome; we'd do it any time. It was really nice meeting you, and everybody--"  
There was a crackle as the intercom came to life. "_Gate C-16 to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport, rows 1-10, please report to the gate,_" announced the lady who was speaking into the microphone; we were just on time. "_Again, that's rows 1-10 of gate C-16, please board immediately. Rows 11-20 will be called in approximately 10 minutes, and should refrain from stepping into the line until rows 1-10 have boarded you, and have a great day._"  
Kaliyan put a warm hand on my shoulder and gave me a half-smile tinted with exhaustion and sadness. "We've got to go, Distressa," she said, her eyes sliding over to our newfound friend. "You can send us owls anytime if you want...but, erm..."  
"Wait," Distressa interrupted her. "Why are you going to America? I thought Beauxbatons was in France?"  
Emily walked up, then, looking impatient. Just in time. "Come _on_, you two, we're in rows 6 and 7. Move your butts or we'll have to wait with the people from the next few." Then she snagged my hand and Kaliyan's and dragged us off to the line. The woman there gave us an aggravated glare as she checked us in, as if to say, 'I was just about to call the next rows,' but she checked us in swiftly, and soon we were seated on the airplane, settling in for the long flight ahead of us.

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As we clambered out of the plane and into the MSP airport, we immediately noticed a clustering of boys standing by the exit, all of them looking anxious. I counted them off: Seth, Skylar, Michel, Santino...they were all there, each and every one of them, and they all had a look of relief on their faces when we stepped out into the gate.  
The first couple to embrace was Seth and Kaliyan. They ran towards each other, their superhuman legs pushing them faster than most people's could, and threw their arms around each other. Kaliyan smiled blissfully, but it slowly disappeared as Seth plucked a hair off of her head, looking puzzled. "Since when are you blonde?" he asked, holding up the sandy blonde lock. "Is it leftover dye from a disguise, or something?"  
Kaliyan just grinned and shook her head. "I'll tell you later," she said shortly, then pressed her lips to his.  
The second pair was Emily and Skylar, but only because Skylar had launched himself towards Emily before she could so much as lock eyes with him. He immediately swept her into his arms, locking her in an embrace that seemed to both melt her and chill her at the same time. Mandy and Michel, careful to run at human pace. And suddenly I was whisked up into the air in cool arms.

**Janet**

I was amazed at the stories my friends told me on the ride home from the airport. Quidditch, Potions, all of the magic. I was envious of the fact that they remembered all of it, when I only remember seeing Scorpius and then 'waking up' at Harry Potter's house. I was so glad to be somewhere familiar when we finally reached Emma's house, our decided ending spot for the night. We all headed downstairs as Emma talked to her mom about us staying the night.

"So I seriously locked you two in a closet?" I asked, as we settled. Emily spoke from the couch now pushed back to the bar.

"And tied us up, put _Silencio_ on us, then put an age line in front of all of it," she said, smiling. I sighed.

"Oh well, you weren't thinking right." Mandy said.

"Yeah I guess..."

"Who wants popcorn?!" Emma said cheerfully, coming down the stairs.  
We all joined in a chorus of, "Me!"  
I grinned widely and commented, "Well, I guess everything's back to normal, then, huh?"  
And, you know what? Everything was.


End file.
